I^0<&^^^ 



6 



m 



SI 



m 



m 



A HISTORY 



T 



—OF THE— 



j ' ' " 



^}^"t--3g"^»^^-^'^^^^^^^^^>^>^-^^^^^^^^''^^^^^^^^^^^ 



i ><^^%J> 



<^ CULyL^, CL C S^tAu><^ 



-AT- 



-vv 



/•^^ 



% 




<s><s>®<s>^^ 



CHAELESTOir, S. C. 



LaAl^s.^ C.a\V\ou.n mot\w.ment. 



B.&a C. I a u \ o rv 



I a^"\' 



A HISTORY 



ALHOUN MONUMENT 



CHARLESTON. S. C. 



^^ 



CHARLESTON, S. 0. 
LtJCAS, Richardson & Co.,, Book and Job Printers> 

No. 130 East Bay Street. 
1888. 



nv^ 



PREFACE. 



1^ — —^ — y^ 
N having the followiug pages strung together the object of 
the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association is to have 
the incidents connected with their work put in convenient 
shape for those of the public in general who may take an interest 
in it, but more especially for those, and the children of those, 
who have contributed towards it in money and lent to it their 
every energy. It is also the desire of the ladies to pay Mr. 
Lamar the compliment of having his speech, delivered on the 
occasion of the unveiling of the monument, put in book form so 
that they can not only place it upon the shelves of their own 
libraries, but place it upon the shelves of many of the libraries 
of the schools, colleges and public institutions of the country as 
an exponent of two great men, — the subject of the oration and 
orator himself, men whose voices will speak on forever. 

CLARENCE CUNINGHAM. 



Yiitii the Compliments of the 

Ladle?' Galhoun J^onument j?^§?o(^iation. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Address of Mayor Courtenay 55 

Battery, on the ... 43 

Cerejmonies of the Unveiling 41 

Guests op the City, the Ill 

Items of Interes'i' 112 

Marion Square 52 

Ode by Miss E. B. Cheesborough ."j.S 

Oration of the Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar .... 68 

Poems by Mrs. Margaret J. Preston 107 

Prayer, by Rev. Dr. Pixckney 57 

Procession 43 

Salute, the 110 

Sketch of' the Work of the Association 2 

Letters — 

Ames, Oliver. Governor of Massjicliusetts 135 

Barton, Clara 124 

Bayard, T. F., Secivtary of State 127 

Beauregard. G. T. Geu 144 

Beaver, Jauies A., Governor of Pennsylvania 141 

Bonham, M. L 125 

Bonhaiu, M. L. J., Adjutant and Inspector General of S. C 132 

Charleston, City Council of, by W. W. Simons 144 

Cleveland, Grover, President 126 

Colhoun. James Edward 118 

Corcoran, W. W 119 

Corcoran, W. W 120 

Corcoran, W. W 120 

Courtenay, Wm. A., Mayor of Charleston 119 

Currier, Moody, Governor of New Hampshire . . . , 133 

Davis, Jefferson, Ex.-President of the C. S. A 117 

Dibble, Samuel, Congressman 132 

Earle, A. H 126 

Endicot, William C, Secretary of War 128 

Fairchild, Charles S. , Secretary of the Treasury 128 

Fish, Hamilton 122 

Fleming, T. P 137 

Fredericksburg, Va., City Council of, by J. Hazard 145 



vi. Index. 

r PAGE. 

Letters — 

Grray, Isaac P., Governor of Indiana 142 

Green, Robert S., Governor of New Jersey 140 

Harllee, W. W 128 

Hill, D. B., Governor of New York, by W. G. Rice 134 

Hunter, R. M. T ". " " ny 

Johnston, Mrs. Eliza Griffin 124 

.Johnston, George D., Superintendent of Citadel of C^harleston 133 

.Johnston, Wm. Preston 125 

Knott, J. Proctor, Governor of Kentucky 138 

Lee, Gen. Curtis, by W. C. Ludwig 125 

Lee, Pitzhugh, Govei'nor of Virginia 134 

Leitner, VV. Z., Secretary of State of South Carolina 131 

Luce, C. G., Governor of Michigan 141 

Lounsbury, Phineas C, Governor of Connecticut, by G. P. McLean. 140 

Lowry, Robert, Governor of Mississippi 14y 

Martin, John A., Governor of Kansas 135 

McEnery, S. D., Governoi- of Louisiana 136 

Pennoyer. Sylvester. Governor of Oregon 138 

Perry, Ed. A., Governor of Florida 137 

Petersburg, Va., City Council of, by T. J. Janatt 146 

Richardson. J. P., Governor of South Carolina 130 

Richmond, Va.. Clity Council of, by B. T. August 147 

Russell, F. R ^4g 

Seay, Thomas. Governor of Alabama, by J. R. Jackson 139 

Scales, A. M., Govei-nor of North Carolina, by C. H. Armfield 138 

Simonton, C. H., Judge of U. S. District Court for S. C 130 

Simpson. W. I).. Chief Justice of South Carolina 130 

Sloman, the Misses I34 

Stoney, W. E., Comptioller General of South Cai'olina 131 

Thayer. John M., Governoi- of Nebraska 134 

Thompson. Hugh S.. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 129 

Whetmore, George P.. Governor of Rhode Island 136 

Whitney, W. C, Secretary of the Navy 129 

Wilmington, N. C, City Council of. by W. A. Wilson 145 

Winthrop, Robert C 12i 

Zulick. C. Meyer, Governor of Arizona 139 



A SKETCH 



OF THE 



FOUNDATION. PROGRESS AND WORK 



OF THE 






louii Moiiiieii 




AS PREPARED FROM 



THE MINUTE BOOKS 



BY. 



CLARENCE CUNINGHAM. 



\ his domestic and public virtues, and the 
purity of his character ; by his dual nature of 
woman's sympathy and man's stouter purpose, 
as well as by his minute and accurate investigation in 
his search after truth as the basis of all true polity ; by 
his profound and wide generalizations, and his close 
analyses involving premises and conclusions as broad 
as his subjects; by his quick perception, his prompt 
and determined action, and by his constant care for his 
family and toil for his country's good ; by that strict 
integrity, magnanimity and unflinching courage, as by 
that thorough knowledge and reliant patience, that 
rigid logic, prophetic glance and sincere conviction, 
which he brought into his every public movement, 
Mr. Calhoun won the love, gained the confidence and 
awakened to a glow the admiration of his people at 
home and of the world abroad, and challenged the 
high respect alike of friend and foe. 

The final work of crystallizing this admiration of his 
people and giving it the shape of a realized ideal or 
symbol, belongs to our Women of South Carolina, 
prominent among whom was Mrs. M. A. Snowden. 
One of her original co-workers has flatteringly said re- 
cently in print, " She was the prime mover, tireless 
worker and chief inspiration of the 'Ladies' Calhoun 
Monument Association.'" It was Mrs. M. A. Snowden 
who, as Miss Amarintha Yates, succeeded in g'atherina-, 
including herself, eleven ladies in her mother's drawing- 
room. Church street, Charleston, S. C, on the 23d Jan- 



uary, 1854, and there and then was organized the said 
Association. The hidies present were : Mrs. Esther 
Monk, Mrs. PJchard Yeadon, Mrs. 1. S. Snowden, Mrs. 
Normand Porter, Mrs. Richard Stone, Mrs. Henry Gray, 
Mrs. Richard Scriven, Miss M. A. Yates, Miss Noble, 
Miss Palmer and Miss Cheesborough. Mrs. Monk was 
called to the chair, and Miss E. B. Cheesborough was 
appointed Secretar}^ The following ladies were then 
elected officers of the Association : Mrs. Esther Monk, 
President ; Mrs. John M. Fludd and Mrs. Henry Gray, 
Vice-Presidents; Miss E. B. Cheesborough and Miss L. 
S. Porter, Corresponding Secretaries ; Miss Maria Chees- 
borough, Recording Secretary ; and Miss M. A. Yates, 
(afterwards Mrs. Snowden) Treasurer. 

A Constitution having been framed and adopted by 
these ladies assembled at Mrs. Y^ates', it declared their 
society should be known as the " Ladies' Calhoun Monu- 
ment Association," and that its object should be " to aid 
in the erection, in or near the City of Charleston, of a 
monument sacred to the memory of John C. Calhoun." 
Article third of the Constitution provided that "any 
person could become a member after paying one dollar 
into the Treasury ;" while iVrticle fifth provided that 
" Auxiliary Associations could be established in any 
part or parts of the State," and hence there were elect- 
ed as "directresses'' a number of ladies, whose duty it 
was to conduct the general affairs of the Association, 
and especially to obtain contributions and to extend 
and increase in every direction the membership. 

Before this first informal meeting was dissolved, it 
was unanimously resolved that circulars be printed con- 
taining the Constitution and a statement of the object 
of the Association ; and tliat said circulars be transmit- 



ted to ladies in various districts, towns and villages of 
the State : while other circulars be prepared and ad- 
dressed to the young, and be sent to the different 
schools and colleges. Thus we see that in that first 
meeting a most thorough system was instituted not only 
to raise funds for the noble and obligatory object in 
view, but, also, to put it in the way of every man, wo- 
man and child of this State to be approached in 1)ehalf 
of this same object, and to give each and all the oppor- 
tunity of taking part, and, in that way, claiming a share 
in the lofty ti'ibute to be paid to the memory of the 
most distinguished son of the Commonwealth of South 
Carolina; the most conscientious and profound states- 
man of the Federal States of the Union ; and the In-oad- 
est and deepest political thinker of his era ; — that era 
during which he reigned over the politics of the West- 
ern World for forty years. 

What was the result ? Prompt encouragement came 
in from all sides, and substantial success was all but im- 
mediate. On March tith, 1854, when the first regular 
meeting was held at the residence of Mrs. Henry DeSaus- 
sure. Meeting street, the sum of $2,500 was handed in 
to the Treasurer. In this assemblage of a "consider- 
able number of ladies, evincing a lively interest '' in the 
patriotic undertaking, there was the greatest satisfac-^ 
tion shown upon the reports from a large number of 
the Directresses, who reported collections, but preferred 
to withhold remittances until a still larger sum should 
have been taken in. There was sincere rejoicing over 
the ready aid sent and over the spirit shown by the 
young in the schools of the city ; and prominent among 
these young people was a volunteer association, which 
stvled itself the " Juvenile Branch. " On, good women, 



with your noble work ! for mark, though your Associa- 
tion has been in operation for only about six weeks, the 
money has flowed in ; and come in not from the Eldo- 
rado Mines of the millionaire, but, with few exceptions, 
from the limited source of one dollar subscriptions. 

We' see from the minutes of the different meetings 
that money continued to come in from all sides and 
from all conditions of men. The Districts send in their 
collections; Carolina women residing out of the State 
send their contributions; Grand Juries through their 
foremen, tender their offerings; the most gifted con- 
cert singers of the city lend their services; Young 
Ladies' Schools, Military Institutes, the South Carolina 
College itself, catch the enthusiasm and respond. In 
fact the entire State is aroused, and a number of Socie- 
ties as well as the Press come forward with commenda- 
tion and still more substantial aid. In addition, a 
Tennessee delegation, in attendance here upon a Com- 
mercial Convention, step forward and help on the 
Association. 

At the meeting held March Tth, 1855, reports were 
handed in of large sums that had been received. From 
the Meagher Guards the proceeds of the lecture of Gen. 
T. F. Meagher, and from the Misses Sloinan the pro- 
ceeds of their concert, also contributions from parties 
in Montgomery, Ala., and in Columbus, Ga. At this 
meeting the following new officers were elected : Mrs. 
George Robertson, President; Mrs. John Fludd, Mrs. 
Henry Conner, Mrs. Henry Gray and Mrs. Henry Wig- 
fall, ^^ice-Presidents ; Miss Laura S. Porter and Miss M. 
Blamyer, Corresponding Secretaries; Miss Maria Chees- 
borough. Recording Secretary ; and Miss M. A. Yates 
Treasurer. It was resolved the ladies should present 



the Misses Sloman a testimonial of gratitude for ser- 
vices rendered the Association ; and that a copy of Cal- 
houn's Works be presented as a testimonial of gratitude 
to Gen. T. F. Meagher, for his generous offices. 

The ladies wishing to keep constantly in remem- 
brance Mr. Calhoun's birth-day, settled upon the 18th 
March as the anniversary day of the Association. Upon 
their convocation at the first anniversary, the Treasurer 
reported that over $8,500 had been collected. The 
Theatre Association, under the Presidency of Mr. G.W. 
Brown, assisted the ladies by contributing largely from 
their receipts. A letter was received fi'om a friend in 
Rhode Island containing a fraternal and liberal contri- 
bution. Floral fairs were got up by the ladies, and the 
Charleston Gas Company showed their sympathy for the 
good work by remitting their bills. Ere the second 
anniversary the Association had over $16,000, securely 
invested in City coupon bonds and City six per cent, 
stock, as well as South Carolina Railroad seven per 
cent, bonds, and shares in Bank of Charleston. By the 
hands of Mr. H. W. Conner, the old stockholders of the 
Charleston Hotel Company made a liberal donation in 
stock to the Association. The ladies doubled their 
efforts to enlarge their funds, and they canvassed 
unceasingly in all directions. Mr. Petit presented the 
Association with a musical composition of his own, 
which netted a neat little sum. 

About this time, September, 1855, through their 
President, the late General Wilmot G. DeSaussure, the 
" Gentlemen's Calhoun Monument Association, Fire 
and Military Departments, " made a proposition to the 
" Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association " to unite 
with them and " endeavor to lay the foundation of 



8 



tlie Calhoun Monument, at as early a date as practica- 
ble, " but the ladies after several months of reflection 
decided "they would not give the proceeds of their 
exertions to the Gentlemen's Association, but that they 
would continue their efforts until a sufficient sum Avas 
raised to justify their laying the foundation of the Cal- 
houn Monument." A year before, the same Gentle- 
men's Association, through a letter from the then 
acting president, R. M. Bacot, Esq., enquired of the 
Ladies' Association what sum the ladies intended to 
contribute towards the erection of the monument. The 
ladies replied they would give $500 towards laying the 
corner stone if the gentlemen would raise as much for 
the same purpose. There the matter rested until the 
letter from Gen. DeSaussure. In June of 1856, the 
Gentlemen's Association and the Fire and Military 
Departments for the third time approached the Ladies' 
Association. Its president, F. Y. Porcher, Esq., wrote 
to the said Ladies' Association that a committee of gen- 
tlemen had been appointed to confer with them '4n 
reference to all matters connected with the erection of 
the monument," and that they had '' abandoned the 
project of erecting a monument after the plan they had 
already adopted." But the Ladies' Association invited 
to act as a committee in their behalf the following gen- 



tlemen: Messrs. Henry Gourdin, H. W. Conner, Wm. 
D. Porter, W. J. Bennett, Wm. P. Miles, P. C. Gaillard, 
R. Lucas, Geo. Robertson, Richard Yeadon, Edward 
Manigault, Francis Cart, John L. Nowell, G. H. Ingra- 
ham, and Gen. W. E. Martin. These gentlemen, as the 
minute book reports, the ladies chose "not only for 
their public spirit, but also for their correct judgment 
and energy. " The summer meeting, however, being too 



sparsely attended, matters of importaiiee were not acted 
upon by the ladies and notliing was done on that special 
question. 

It seems that previous to 1<S53 an association of the 
Fire and Military Departments was organized to raise 
a monument to the great Carolinian, and that it pro- 
gressed with sufficient success to justify its obtaining a 
charter, but this association was finally absorbed by 
that of the ladies, and all of its funds turned over to 
them ; although when the ladies' appeal to the daughters 
of South Carolina first appeared they were warned ""that 
they were trespassing upon the sphere of the other sex, 
and that ridicule would be their only reward." 

At the meeting held December 6th, 1856, the wel- 
come news came fi-om the Hon. Wm. D. Porter "'that 
the Legislature had granted a charter of the Ladies' 
Calhoun Monument Association, having withdrawn the 
three months notice required by resolution in such 
cases." The ladies now felt they were strong in some- 
thing more than a mere local habitation and a name — 
a corporate body I one that must have rules ! and that 
its funds and securities must be transferred to its corpo- 
rate name. 

In that meeting it was resolved that a letter be ad- 
dressed to the Chairman of the Committee chosen by 
the ladies as above stated, requesting him to summon 
his Committee, and make regulations for the laying of 
the corner stone as soon as practicable. It was further 
resolved that a letter be addressed to the Hon. Law- 
rence M. Keitt, inviting him to be j)resent and dehver 
an oration on that occasion. 

The financial condition of the Association continued 
to improve ; and among the Association's patrons were 



10 



Gen. James Gadsden, the Hon. Wm. Aiken, Mrs. Ben- 
nett, Prof. Rivers, Mr. B. Alston, Mr. Wm. DuBose, 
Wm. B. Dorn, Esq., of Edgefield, Dr. Gibbes Elliott, 
and the Masons. 

In June, 1858, Mr. Henry Gonrdin, Chairman of the 
Gentlemen's Committee, reported that at their last meet- 
ing it was resolved " as the opinion of the Committee 
that the fnnds now in possession of the two Associa- 
tions warrant the commencement of the work as soon 
as the preliminary arrangements can be made to do so, 
and that the Association may safely undertake the con- 
struction of a monument to cost the sum of fifty thous- 
and dollars." 

During this same year the ladies were called to mourn 
the death of Mrs. Esther Monk. After fitting remarks 
upon the services, energy and devotion on the part of 
the deceased in behalf of the cherished undertaking, it 
was 

Resolved, That in token of our respect for the memory of our 
first President, we do hereby direct that a page in our Record 
Book be devoted to her memory, and the Secretary do insert 
upon the Minutes of the Association this brief memorial of our 
sorrow : 

In Memory 

OF 

Mrs. ESTHER MONK, 

First President of the Ladies Calhoun Monuinent 
Association. 

On the 28th June, 1858, chosen because it was the 
anniversary of the battle of Fort Moultrie — a day par- 
ticularly dear and sacred to the heart of each and every 



11 



Carolinian — the corner stone of the monument was laid 
on the Citadel Square. The ceremonies were performed 
in the presence of a large concourse of people. Under 
the command of the late (len. Wm. E. Martin there was 
formed on the Battery a procession comprising the Mili- 
tary, the Masons and other civic societies, as well as the 
ladies of the Association in carriages. It repaired in 
state to the spot chosen as the location where the stone 
should be laid. Prayer having been offered by the Rev. 
Dr. Bachman, the Masons, with ceremonies peculiar to 
their order, conducted by M. W. Grand Master Henry 
Buist, placed the corner stone. It is a free-stone block 
two feet eight inches wide and one foot two inches deep, 
and thus inscribed : 

THIS CORNER, STONE 

OF THE 

CALHOUN NIONUJVTENX, 

Laid by Henry Buist, 

M. W. Grand Master of Grand Lndye, A. F. M. of S. C. 

June 28th, A. L. 5(S58. 

In its cavity were deposited the following articles : 

A cannon ball which had been recovered from the 
harbour, and which is supposed to have been used in the 
battle of Fort Moultrie. Presented by James M. Eason. 

A case containing a banner that had been carried by 
the Seamen in the funeral procession in honor of Cal- 
houn, with the motto: "The children of old ocean 
mourn him." Presented by the Rev, Wm. B. Yates. 

One hundred dollars in Continental money ; a lock 



12 



of Mr. Calhoun's hair, in a small case, presented by an 
officer and active member of the Ladies' Association. 

Lists containing names of the different Cabinets of the 
General Government from the inauguration of -Washing- 
ton ; the Governor of the State of South Carolina ; Mayor 
of the City of Charleston; Officers of the Ladies' Cal- 
houn Monument Association; Committee of Arrange- 
ments, Marshals, Orator, Officers of the M. W. Grand 
Lodge A. F. M. of South Carolina, and Proceedings of 
the last session of the Board of Firemasters, Fire Engine 
Companies with date of charter and number of mem- 
bers ; Board of Field Officers Fourth Brigade ; Officers 
of the Calhoun Monument Association of the Firemen 
and Military ; an historical sketch of the rise and pro- 
gress of the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association ; 
the last speech of John C. Calhoun delivered in the 
United States Senate on 4th March, 1850. 

When the Grand Chaplain of the Masons had closed 
the masonic ceremonies with prayer, and the Grand 
Master, the Hon. Henry Buist, had delivered a few re- 
marks, the Hon. Lawrence M. Keitt arose and held the 
close attention of the masses, assembled to do honour 
to the occasion, by his eloquent oratory and his clear 
exposition of the character and of the life-work of Mr. 
Calhoun. The magnetic orator did justice to his sub- 
ject and he truly suggested Mr. Calhoun's was not a 
borrowed light, but one that respired with his very 
breath, and was fed with the essence of his soul. We 
may add that even the immortal Goethe, whose last 
prayer was for "light, more light," could have illumed 
his lamp from this sun of deep insight into, and 
broad moral observations upon, all human action. 

And here closed the first chapter of that much cher- 



13 



ishecl work undertaken by the women of Carolina. 
They were now forced to turn their attention from ren- 
dering honours to the dead to administering to the 
living ; to staying the blood that gushed from many a 
wound ; to alleviating the pangs of hunger, and giving 
the drop of cool water to stay the tortures of thirst; 
to smoothing the pillows of thousands who could 
murmur, ''now I rest more easy;" to cheering on and 
inspiring fortitude in the hearts of an army of heroic 
souls, possessed of the conviction of the right, and bat- 
tling for a cause. In one of the short meetings held 
just before the breaking out of the war between the 
States, these women 

Resolved, " That it is the wish of this Association, that the 
Calhoun Monument shall be the first public work carried on 
after the restoration of Peace, as a just tribute to the memory 
of our Political Father. John C. Calhoun." 

The struggle came; and during that four years of 
bloody strife and destruction of property, of course the 
work of the Association was all but suspended. 
Though no new contributions came in, the entire fund 
heretofore collected, excepting some few investments 
made in Confederate securities, was saved to the Associa- 
tion by the heroic conduct and self-sacrifice of its noble, 
courageous and large-hearted Treasurer, Mrs. M. A. 
Snowden, to whom we have already referred as the 
energetic Araarintha Yates. Like the great Roth- 
child, tlie founder of that family illustrious in the de- 
partments of finance, and whom his king raised to the 
exalted position of a nobleman of the realm for his hav- 
ing faithfully preserved, while losing his own private 
fortune, the public funds intrusted to his keeping, she, 



14 



loosing her own property, preserved that of the Asso- 
ciation. During those days and nights when the pall of 
despair wrapped every heart and the blood ceased from 
its fevered course to stagnate at the fell deeds that 
flourished in the mart, and when Sherman's torch made 
Columbia a beacon that lighted us to the skies, this 
woman of South Carolina carried the securities of the 
Association, stitched in the folds of her dress, — sublime 
in her forgetfulness as to her own losses and in her 
holding inviolate her sacred trust ! 

Mrs. M. A. Snowden was assisted by her sister, Mrs. 
I. S. Snowden in her occupation of quilthig the bonds 
in her skirt. At the dead of night, by the imperfect 
light of a lamp, these two ladies, with trembling and 
flying fingers, plied their task, observed, as they 
thought, only by the eye of God, under the spell of 
whose countenance they had addressed themselves to 
their work. Think of their astonishment, yet agreeable 
surprise and satisfaction when some time after, and the 
bonds were out of danger, they were told by their 
mother's maid, a negro slave, that she was delighted 
the soldiers did not get the things sewed up in the gar- 
ment. It seems, she, from her position in the piazza, 
had witnessed, by peeping through the Venetians, the 
whole performance of the two ladies. The faithful crea- 
ture, acting upon her own high instincts of honesty, kept 
the secret. To this incorruptible, though unlettered 
daughter of African descent, all honour is due, for hon- 
esty, though not an object of reward, is a thing to be 
especially honoured, when the very air is putrid with 
the dishonesty of those who claim to be high up, not 
only in the scale of learning, but of gently-dealing and 
humane-teaching civilization — yea, of those whose offi- 



15 

cial position placed them in the front ranks of that 
hi"-hest and mightiest of races, which calls itself the 
Caucasian. 

The civil struggle ceased. A new dynasty at the 
head of affliirs, new forces and circumstances impelling 
the wheel of fortune, the women of Carolina had to 
give up their nurtured hope and resolve of making the 
monument' to their hero, now more sacred than ever, 
their first duty, and had to turn their energies to facing 
and effectually meeting the stern lots necessity cast 
upon them. In this they triumphed, and, could it be 
possible, they arose out of their troubles calmer, 
stronger and more beautiful ; — purified priestesses 
around the altar of home. 

When, in 1871, the Association began again its regu- 
lar meetings, Mrs. Conner reported that the Treasurer's 
books had been examined and found correct. The 
ladies agreed to place in the hands of Col. P. C. Gail- 
lard, one of their long and zealous co-workers, all the 
records of the Association, so as to enable him to make 
a full statement of its affairs. This statement he made 
to the fullest satisfaction and handed it in, January, 
1874. In his report he remarked: " In the history of 
the Association there occurs three distinct periods, effect- 
ing its interests so materially, that there is almost a 
necessity, in giving a full statement, to deal with each 
separately.'' The first period, from March, 1854, to 
March, 1861, was the period of increase of funds by 
donations, collections and subscriptions. The second 
period, from March, 1861, to March, 1866, was the 
period when Confederate Currency circulated, and in- 
vestments were made in Confederate securities. The 
third period was from Mai'ch, 1866, to January, 1874. 



16 



In tlu' first piM'iod tlu' at'tiial anioniit received froiii all 
soiuves amounted to $;),"),,")();). CM. wliieh bein^i;- invested, 
it was found at the elose ol" the period the stocks and 
seeuritit's au\ounted to $.')!),()!(). As in the second 
period all invest nuMits were in ("onfederate securities 
tliev amounted to nothing, so were not re})orted. But 
in the third period, thv' various municipalities and cor- 
porations within the State, having- been restored to their 
former rights and privih>ges, ])rovisions wei'e nuule by 
most o[' them to meet the ai'i'ears of interest due to their 
securities. 

Few expenses were incurred by the Assoi'iation be- 
vcuul taxes and the $100 paid after the war for the re- 
nu>val ol' Mr. falhouns renuiins back to tlunr original 
resting j)lace in the western division of St. Philip's 
churchvartl. 'f he par value of the securities was, on : 

March 1:3th, ISGl 889,010 00 

Securities received since Jiui'v, 18GG, par value. :24,:20o 5.'2 
Par value of all securities held at Jan'y 1st, 1874:, (!4,504 l'^ 
Estimated market value of the same ... 37,930 10 

The amount ou hand had been derived from the fol- 
lowing sources up to the beginning of the war: 

Fairs in the City of Charleston s!l 1,071 81 

Concerts in the City of Charleston 2,195 31 

Lectures in the City of Charleston 563 00 

Legacies from residents of the City of Charleston 600 00 

Collections aud donations in the City 5,709 00 

Charleston District 578 35 

All the other Districts of South Carolina 3 737 54 

From persons, residence unknown 66 30 

Donations from State Senators 102 00 

Donations from Prof. Eivers 1,000 00 

Donations from other States 491 50 

Interests and dividends 9,399 93 



Total $35,514 6 



o 



17 



The receipts since January 1st, 1866, have been de- 
rived from interests only, except a small amount, say 
$19.00, received from the Savings Bank at its winding 
up in 1869. 

Thus we see that after the suspension of hostilities 
it was found that such was the nature of the invest- 
ments that scarcely one was without value. The Asso- 
ciation was now fully re-organized and again upon its 
feet. And now the time had come to discuss a question, 
not forseen at the time of the organization of the 
Ladies' Callioun Monument Association, in 1854, but 
which was of vital ini])ortance, and second only to that 
of the creation of the Society itself. Being keenly 
alive in their wisdom to the vast importance of educa- 
tion, having from their wide and deep experience, 
gained in the late conflict, seen the force and power of 
mental culture, knowing as they did, that tlieir country 
was utterly prostrate, and that her sources of wealth 
were all choked up and had in many respects entirely 
disappeared; and, I'ealizing only too well that the 
means could not be procured to give even a primary 
and practical education to thousands of her war-caused 
illiterate young men and women, as well as theu' children ; 
man}' of the noble-hearted women managing the affairs 
of the Association conceived the idea and made the 
proposition, which met with favour in many quarters, 
that the fund raised to build a monument to the mem- 
ory of John C. Calhoun, in, or near Charleston, be ap- 
propriated to the use of establishing a John C. Calhoun 
educational fund, by means of which the buys and girls 
of South Carolina could be given those privileges of 
learning enjoyed by their forefathers, and for which not 
only a universal civilization, but necessity itself calls 



18 



aloud. They sincerely believed such would have been 
the wishes and views of Mr Calhoun himself; and they 
were careful to get the opinion on the subject of most of 
the absent directresses — and that opinion was favour- 
able to the change. The daughter of our illustrious 
citizen showed her feelings on the point discussed when 
she said that while she could not permit the use of her 
name as advocating the donation of the monumental 
fund to the Confederate Home in the manner indicated, 
"yet," she says in her letter, '' I too feel deeply on this 
sul)ject, and am most desirous of seeing the monu- 
mental fund devoted to that (educational) purpose, as 
the noblest memento to my dear father's memory, 
knowing as I do, his true modesty, his devotion to the 
State, and his high estimation of the necessity of educa- 
tion. I am sure such a monument would be the one he 
would choose above all others, and I agree with you, 
(Mrs. M. A. Snowden,) that to erect a monument of 
stone or bronze, in the present state of our affairs, to 
any man, would be more to our shame than his honour." 
To divert the fund to even so laudable a purpose was 
too grave a responsibility to be assumed by the small 
number of subscribers that could have been brought 
together. Many of the original ones, and, among them, 
some of the largest contributors, were dead or removed 
from the State, and inaccessable, so under the circum- 
stances the Association solicited from the Hon. Henry 
Gourdin, Col. I. W. Hayne, Gen. Jas. Conner, Gen. W. 
G. DeSaussure, Hon. W. D. Porter and W. J. Bennett, 
Esq., advice upon the subject. These gentlemen had 
been ever the warmest of friends to the Association. 
But, as these gentlemen, "failed to come to any agree- 
ment as to the legality of the change," they suggested 



19 



that the Ladies consult the three surviving Chancellors 
of the old Carolina Bench : Chief Justice Dunkin and 
Chancellors Lesesne and Carroll ; and, further, that the 
ladies abide by the decision of the majority. The ladies 
unanimously agreed to the suggestion. Having ac- 
cepted the request and weighed the proposition, the 
Chancellors replied : 

"Having given our best consideration to the question, and to 
the views of counsel on either side, with which we have been 
favoured, we are of opinion that the Association cannot law- 
fully apply the funds in their hands to the purchase of "grounds 
or an edifice or building, to be known as the Calhoun Monu- 
ment Institute, to be applied to educational purposes," such not 
being in our judgment the sort of monument intended by the 
word as used in their Constitution. 

"We are also of the opinion that the temporary investment of 
the funds in the purchase of such grounds and buildings to be 
used as above stated, until a suitable time may arrive for erect- 
ing a monument of the kind contemplated in the Constitution, 
is not such an investment of trust funds as a Court of Equity 
would authorize or sanction. 

[Signed,] BENJ. F. DUNKIN. 

HENEY D. LESESNE." 

A resolution offered by Mrs. M. A. Snowden and 
passed, stated that as the above educational question 
had been referred to the three living Chancellors of 
South Carolina, and "whereas the majority of the Chan- 
cellors has given a decision advising against the measure: 
Therefore, Be it resolved. That the Board of Direc- 
tresses while deeply regretting that their proposed plan 
is considered inadvisable, a plan which contemplated 
the entire preservation of the fund and which, if carried 
into effect would, in their view, have proved the best 
and noblest monument to Mr. Calhoun, still yield to the 



20 



opinion of their friends and advisers and will hold the 
fund until a more fitting day arrives for the consumma- 
tion of the original plan." Thus ended the most im- 
portant question considered since the foundation of the 
Association. 

At the anniversary meeting held 18th of March, 
1874, the venerable President offered a resolution to 
the effect that the Association owed a vote of thanks to 
its Treasurer for '^ler zealous and scrupulous care and 
great success in the arrangement and preservation of 
its funds through the many years past, especially in 
those during and immediately succeeding the war, when 
its utter destruction was frequently threatened and 
feared." Unanimously passed. 

Immediately after said meeting the following officers 
were elected: Mrs. George Robertson, President; Mrs. 
H. W. Conner and Mrs. Henry Wigfall, Vice-Presidents; 
Mrs. Joseph Blackman, Corresponding Secretary ; Miss 
S. B. Hayne, Recording Secretary ; Mrs. M. A. Snow- 
den, Treasurer. 

The ladies having the best advice as to the repeated 
investments of the interest on their fund, had the leisure 
to actively discuss the question of a model for the monu- 
ment. This question, of course, had been talked about 
for a long time, and as early as 1856, communications had 
been received from Jones and Lee, as well as Edward 
B. White, Esq., relative to designs they had prepared 
for the Calhoun Temple or Monument. We notice in 
the Minutes of the first Quarterly Meeting of the As- 
sociation for the year 1859, mention is made of a letter 
from Mr. Henry Gourdin, Chairman of the Ladies' Ad- 
visory Committee, stating that at a previous meeting of 
the Committee it was resolved to advise the ladies to 



21 



adopt, as a Calhoun Monument, "a colossal bronze 
statue of Mr. Calhoun standing on a base of South Car- 
olina granite." At the same time a design for such 
monument was submitted for the ladies' inspection. 

At a meetino- in 1876 we find the ladies concurrino: 
in the idea of having it a bronze figure on a native gran- 
ite base and pillar ; the statue to be on the model of 
that executed in marble for the City of Charleston by 
Powers. To aid them in carrying out their plan a com- 
mittee of thirteen gentlemen were forthwith nominated 
and elected. Some of the gentlemen elected were the 
same the ladies had chosen, for the same purpose, 
twenty years before, in 1856, previous to the civil strife. 
The names of the thirteen were as follows: Mr. Henry 
Gourdiu, Chancellor Henry Lesesne, Hon. W. D. Por- 
ter, Col. Edward McCrady, Jr., Gen. Conner, Col. P. C. 
Gaillard, Col. S. B. Pickens, Col. Henry E. Young, 
Messrs. Isaac Hayne, C. R. Miles, R. Siegling, Kirkwood 
King and Louis D. DeSaussure. By choice of the 
Association Col. Henry E. Young was made chairman. 

A year later we find the same discussion going on, and 
the ladies, after again deciding that the site for the 
monument be the Citadel Green, announce, 'the mon- 
ument will consist of a life-size statue of Calhoun in his 
usual dress, draped with a cloak and resting on a pal- 
metto tree, and holding in his hand a scroll represent- 
ing " Truth, Justice, and the Constitution"; the other 
minuti^ of the monument to be left to the " artist who 
may obtain the contract for the work." ' In March, 1878, 
Col. Henry E. Young submitted, in behalf of the 
committee of gentlemen, several plans for the monu- 
ment, but no definite action was taken just then. Col. 
Young also handed in the resignation of Mr. Kirkwood 
King. Mr. S. Prioleau Ravenel succeeded to his place. 



22 



Tn March, 1879, at an cvspecial ineotin<;- it was deter- 
niined upon to request the counnittee of genthnueu to 
select a European artist to furnisli designs for the mon- 
ument, inchiding the pedestal. It was forthwith re- 
solved that notices be put in the art jouriials of the 
United States, England, Rome, Florence and Berlin, in- 
viting artists to present designs for the monument and 
referring them to some well-known banking houses for 
reference. The committee of thirteen gentlemen gave 
the matter the closest attention, and they corresponded 
with and about, and also held in considei'ation, sucli 
nien as J. Q. A. Ward, of New York; John J^ell, one 
of the foremost British sculptors ; Carl Echtenmeyer, 
an eminent scul})tor and artist, of Dresden, Germany; 
^'alentinc, of A irginia, also Eziekel, of that State ; 
Rogers and Ives, Ware and Yan I^runt, of Boston ; 
Simmons and Ilarnisch, of Philadelphia. The committee 
knew from experience that great artists will not consent 
to enter into contests and compete with each other, 
hence it was put upon its inquiry and research, and after 
careful discussion and retlection, it decided to recom- 
mend to the Association Mr. A. E. Harnisch as the sculp- 
tor most suited to execute the statue and design the 
base. Among those who bear strong testimony as to 
this sculptor's merits and character are Mr. Richard 
A^aux, as seen in his letter to the Hon. Samuel Randall ; 
Mr. How, of Boston; Mr. Clement Barclay, as also Mr. 
John Sartain, the eminent artist and literateur ; Clement 
and Hutton ; Miss Brewster, and Mr. W. W. Story, the 
celebrated sculptor, as quoted in letters of Mr. How 
and other well-known personages. 

In June of the same year, 1879, the report embody- 
ing the choice of ai tists was handed in to the ladies as 



23 



the unanimous recommendation of the gentlemen form- 
ing the committee. The recommendation was approved 
and the committee was desii'ed to begin forthwith a cor- 
respondence with Mr. Harnisch. Some of the works of 
Mr. Harnisch which entitled him to the notice of the 
public were his Cupid. Love in Idleness, Wandering 
Psyche, Little Protector, Little Hunter and Boy in the 
Eagles' Nest; the last of which the Art Commission of 
Philadelphia Park with one accord ordered without even 
ha^^ng seen the model. At the time he was recom- 
mended to the ladies he was engaged on a model for 
the projjosed equestrian statue of Gen. Lee to be erected 
at Richmond. Another point in his favour was that he 
was a native artist. In discussing with a talented critic 
living abroad whether it would be best to employ a for- 
eign or a native artist, she remarked with a great deal 
of insight and truth : "'I do not think it advisable to 
employ a foreign artist for such a monument as this of 
Calhoun. They would do it in a conventional or com- 
mercial way without any interest or spirit. The subject 
would not materially insj)ire their enthusiasm, and a 
Frenchman makes every figure French, while a German 
makes his figures German. " 

Clement and Hutton in their '"Artists of the Nine- 
teenth Century and their Works," puljUshed in 1879, 
speaking of Harnisch, said : his statues are deemed ex- 
cellent, "'such as only a sculptor who is an anatomist, 
can model," and. ''his portrait busts are especially char- 
acteristic of his suVjjects and give their best and .strong- 
est personalities. " It was further urged he was about 
thirty years of age and " on the sill of success f that he 
was ''realistic in the best sense and makes real indi- 
vidual and not conventional lay figures as is too often 



24 



seen." His uncle, a professor of sculpture at Berlin, 
came to America and "directed the boy in the right 
path;" instructed him in the old belief of sculpture 
with broad horizons ; and influenced him to aim at that 
well-balanced effect produced in the whole of a work 
by broad outlines and simple form, as seen in the speci- 
mens of ancient art. In his native city of Philadelphia 
he studied for several years architecture under Collins 
and Andenreed ; under Struthers he learned all the 
mechanical detail of stone work, and in. the Philadel- 
phia Academy of Fine Arts he was a pupil under Joseph 
Bailey. At the Roman University he studied in the 
dissecting room until he could construct the human 
form from memory, and the collection of ancient sculp- 
ture in the Roman galleries, remarks one of his critics, 
were to him as large libraries to a scholar and writer. 
He had already sent designs to the Association, and at 
the very mooting when his name was proposed and ac- 
cepted tiie committee of gentlemen advised that the 
base of the monument be of native granite, according 
to the designs sent, and that it be executed here, if pos- 
sible. The bronze figure of Calhoun to surmount the 
base they reconnnended to be of heroic size, in tlie cos- 
tume of Calhoun's day and with the cloak he usually 
wore. The general plan of the whole to be something- 
like the statue of Count Cavour at Milan. The head to 
be that from Powers's statue, when the statesman was in 
the full vigour of both mind and body. The scroll 
" Truth, Justice, and the Constitution" and the palmetto 
tree to be appropriately introduced by the artist. 

In March, 1880, Mr. Robert N. Gourdin took the place 
of his deceased brother, Mr. Henry Gourdin, on the 
Gentlemen's Advisory Committee ; and Mr. George 



25 



Ligraliam was elected by the ladies a member of the 
same. 

A model arrived from Mr. Harnisch in June, 1880. 
Col. Young reported in behalf of the committee that 
the model, as a whole met with their unanimous ap- 
proval, and that "the statue itself seems to them re- 
markable for its ease, life and grace." The artist wrote 
from Rome in the preceeding March: "In model No. 
1, I gave as much likeness as was in the picture sent me. 
I found Mr. Bowers's bust of little or no use ; it is so very 
morose in expression ; moreover one of the most promi- 
nent characteristics of Mr. Calhoun's head — his hair — is 
cut short in said bust. Those of my friends who knew Mr. 
Calhoun, give me credit for having produced his promi- 
nent points of character. When 1 model the large statue, 
and have better portraits of him to study from, I shall 
be able to make a stronger likeness.'' Again he writes 
in April: "The long hair is especially effective and 
ought not to be removed ; it is an artistic feature that 
should be expressed.'' The Committee collected as 
many likenesses of Mr. Calhoun as they well could. 
Mr. V. K. Stevenson, of New York, gave them a pho- 
tographic copy of Healey's portrait of the statesman ; 
Miss Mathews gave one of Scarborough's portrait, and 
Mr. Willis a copy of that of Harding. These likenesses 
were sent to Mi'. Harnisch with instructions to use them 
in connection Avith head of Powers's statue. The emi- 
nence of Powers being so universally acknowledged, it 
was insisted upon still that Mr. Harnisch should make 
use of the Powers's head. The portraits by Healey 
and Scarborough were preferred, as they represented 
Mr. Calhoun as Senator, while Harding's represented 
him as Secretary of War, and when Senator our states- 



26 



man was most specially endeared to this State. The 
Committee reminded the ladies that they, of course, 
had the right to express themselves as to which likeness 
they preferred, and what should be the inscription on 
the pedestal, but the statue itself was the work of Mr. 
Harnisch, and he would be responsible for it. The ob- 
jections the gentlemen themselves made to the model 
sent, they made subject to the artist's judgment. One 
of their objections was : ' That the palmetto post be- 
hind be higher, reaching up to about the middle of the 
figure, so that the cloak, resting on it, would fall in 
folds, and lose its present stiff and ungraceful appear- 
ance. ' The following extract from a letter, dated July, 
1880, will not only show how Mr. Harnisch meets that 
objection, but how carefully he was studying his work, 
how minutely he was studying the mental habits and 
characteristics of his subject, so as to be able to make 
the outer form and its accompaniments a true exponent 
of the inner man; he says : "Mr. Calhoun was noted 
for his decided, firm and unbending nature. He was 
true to his State, he indulged in no rhetoric, but always 
went straight to his end at all costs, therefore, the break 
up of folds at the back and all accessories to his own 
figure, would be at varience with the portrait character 
I am trying to represent. The drapery, when not in- 
terferred with by the action or movement of the body, 
should fall in solid, straight, firm lines, otherwise its 
effect would be weakened when placed on high against 
the sky.'' The ladies, in objecting to the same model, 
expressed themselves as " not pleased with the hair as 
represented;" they said, further, ' they did not object 
to the citizen's dress, but the style was not such as Mr. 
Calhoun wore, it fitting more closely than was consis- 



27 



tent with grace and ease. As they had fifty thousand 
dollars to expend on the monument, they hoped for 
something more imposing than the model suggests/ 

On the 5th of September, 1881, the ladies offered a 
fitting tribute to the memory of Mrs. H. W. Conner, 
very recently deceased. She was an original member 
and directress of the Association, and at the time of 
her death, a Vice-President. 

In March, of 1882, Mrs. Dr. DeSaussure and Mrs. 
Joseph Walker were elected Vice-Presidents, and Miss 
F, E. DeSaussure Corresponding Secretary. 

Although as early as March, 1881, the ladies and 
their Gentlemen Committee had come approximately to 
a decision as to Mr. Harnisch's model, and although, in 
the meantime the artist himself had come to Charleston, 
and submitted several designs, no official report had 
been made upon it until the anniversary meeting of 
March 18th, 1882, when Col. Young, on the part of 
the Committee, reported the following: ''That the 
Committee recommend to the Association the accep- 
tance of model No. 1, modified as to the head, to con- 
form to the cast which Mr. Harnish had obtained in 
Charleston ; and as to the other details which may be 
suggested by their Committee and accepted by him." 
The vote was taken upon this resolution and carried, 
approving and endorsing the selection of model No. 1, 
which "is hereby chosen with certain modifications." 
The contract finally made with Mr. Haruisch called for 
a bronze statue of Calhoun on a Carolina granite pedes- 
tal, and surrounding it four allegorical figures, repre- 
senting Truth, Justice, the Constitution and History, for 
the sum of $44,000. The cast of Mr. Calhoun which 
Harnisch had obtained in Charleston was that by 



2R 



Mills, and given the artist by the Hon. William D. 
Porter. 

In a meeting held April 1st, of 1882, the action of 
the President and the Recording Secretary, in retaining 
Judge Magrath, Gen. B. H. Rutledge and Major Braw- 
ley to represent the Association in the event of any 
legal complications, was confirmed, and the President 
and Recording Secretary were authorized to sign and 
seal the contract with Mr. A. E. Harnisch, which had 
been submitted for the approval of the ladies. 

By the number of votes from the Districts entered 
on the Minute Book we have evidence of the greatest 
public confidence in the Board of Directresses, and, in 
the act of their having chosen as their sculptor Mr. 
Harnisch. Mr. Harnisch having fairly begun his work 
and being altogether absorbed in it, the ladies watched 
its progress with great interest. The editor of the 
News and Courier, of Charleston, having written in 
1883 a private letter from Rome, wherein he mentioned 
that he frequently visited Harnisch's studio, and was 
very much pleased with the model of the statue of Mr. 
Calhoun he saw there, and, that he highly approved of 
the selection of Mr. Harnisch as sculptor by the ladies 
of the Calhoun Monument Association ; the ladies in- 
vited him, upon his return to Charleston, to attend their 
anniversary meeting, to be held the 18th of March, 
1883, and make some remarks on the subject so near to 
their hearts. The Minutes of that meeting report his re- 
marks as follows : " Mr. Dawson spoke at some length ; 
the substance of his remarks being that he was most 
favourably impressed with the merit and earnestness of 
Mr. Harnisch. He feels confident that he will give the 
Association a monument to Calhoun which will be en- 



29 



tirely worthy of the subject. He said this with much 
earnestness, because before he had had the opportunity 
of gauging the talent of Mr. Harnisch, he had thought 
the Association had acted hastily in selecting an artist 
who had not already acquired a European reputation. 
He was much pleased to find that Mr. Harnisch occupied 
a high position in artistic circles in Rome, and he feels 
confident that no one could be found in Italy who 
would devote himself more assiduously to the execu- 
tion of the monument. He thinks that the action of 
the Association in selecting Mr. Harnisch will be most 
completely and entirely justified by the result of his 
labours. The central figure of Calhoun is nearly com- 
pleted in clay, and when finished the Calhoun Monu- 
ment will be by far the most imposing work of art in 
the South, an ornament to the City of Charleston and a 
credit to the State, as well as a worthy memorial to 
the constancy which preserved the memorial fund, and 
the genius which gave shape and form to Carolina's un- 
dying veneration of her great son." 

With what sincere and enthusiastic delight the ladies 
of the Association read from time to time the criticisms 
upon Mr. Harnisch and his work ; criticisms that came 
from the pens of able and brilliant writers. Mr. Sartain, 
President of the Philadelphia Art Association, a resident 
for several years at Rome, and a man perfectly familiar 
with the highest types of ancient and modern art, 
writes from Paris, November 2nd, 1883 : ''My first im- 
pression (of statue) was pleasurable surprise ; surprise 
at the magnitude of the work and pleasure at the style 
and character of its execution. The action of the right 
hand and the expression of the face, convey the idea of 
a man reasoning closely. He appears to have risen from 



30 



his chair and to be in the act of addressing an audience. 
The weight of his body is throw chiefly on the right 
leg, and the left is advanced forward in an easy position 
and bent at the knee, of course. The face is wrought 
to an artistic finish, and I judge must be a good like- 
ness from the conception I have formed from portraits 
said to be good. The drapery is gracefully disposed, 
and with a free and bold execution, so important for 
effect, especially m large work. One thing I like in it 
is the absence of the extreme of gesticulation I have 
seen in some statues of public men " 

The correspondent of the Baltimore Sun, writing 
about December, 1883, from Rome, speaks in glowing 
and appreciative terms of the subject in a long letter, 
extracts of which we are only able to give, because of 
the want of space: "This statue model of the great 
Calhoun is indeed animated clay, I can remember see- 
ing Calhoun when I was in the spring and he in winter 
of life. Indeed, I sat opposite him at the dinner-table 
for many a day. * -^^ ^ in this colossal model I 
again see the great 'Nullifier.' He is here, perhaps, 
made to appear rather in the midsummer, than in the 
winter of life. The prime of age is the happy mean 
for the artist. There is none of that shaggy long hair 
thrown back fitfully ; none of that lion like crouching 
that marked the declining days of the hero of the pal- 
metto forest. He now stands erect in that pose which 
gave him the greatest prominence in the United States 
Senate and caused every eye and every ear to be di- 
rected to the Southern orator. '"'' ^ ''"■ His head 
erect and well posed, on a lithe, nervous, yet firm frame; 
his deep-set, stern eyes, beneath a massive brow ; his 
pulsating nostrils and his compressed rigid lips with the 



31 



well-defined Hues of the cheek and chin of the oratori- 
cal type, are all before you in this model. The nervous 
right hand and arm are half extended ; the former be- 
ing one of those 'great, yet not large hands that speak. ' 
The left foot is advanced, and gives to the figure that 
'light, livingness of Senatorial grace,' as Cicero would 
say. * *^ * Standing in front of his Senatorial chair, 
on which is flung the cloak, he was wont to wear, you 
have before you the great formulator of ' State Sov- 
ereignty,' in all his earnest, breathing, life-like char- 
acter. ^' ^ * As a work of art it will be unique, 
not only in the vitality of the chief figure and the re- 
pose of the secondary figures, but in the ornate and 
appropriate ensemble. * ■«• * jyjj. Harnisch can 
afford to rest his reputation on this work, and South 
Carolina can equally afford to be proud of the good 
taste in the selection of the artist for this work. * * -^ 
This work is simply true and truly simple. The spirit 
of Calhoun comes up before you as well as the outer 
man. ^ "^ -^ '^[^^ Harnisch has reproduced the ac- 
cessories of dress, the broad facings of the frock coat, 
the close-fitting, yet semi-neglige pantaloons strapped 
over the boots.' 

The criticism of ^liss Anne Hampton Brewster also 
deserves a place here, not only because of her acknowl- 
edged ability and knowledge in art subjects, but be- 
cause of her representing another and important part 
of the States. She also writes from Rome, and writes 
to the Boston Daily Advertiser: "The heads of these 
figures (Truth, Justice, the Constitution and History) 
are enveloped in sybil-like drapery. They are large 
framed, vigorous women, Michaelangelesque in pose and 
body ; have calm, thoughtful faces, large, tranquil eyes 



32 



that look out and beyond, as the prophetesses of Bible 
days. From the summit of the step-base, on which are 
seated these figures, rises the pedestal of the main 
statue, the subject of the monument. Calhoun stands 
upon it, as a Roman orator on the rostra or suggestum 
of the Roman forum. * " ^^ The committee may 
well congratulate themselves upon having made so 
judicious a selection of sculptor and model." 

Drawings and measurements for the foundation for 
the base were received in July, 1884, from the artist. 
The sub-committee of the Gentlemen's Auxiliary Com- 
mittee, appointed to have specifications made for the 
foundation of the monument, submitted the drawings 
and measurements of Harnisch to Mr. W. B. W. 
Howe, Jr., architect, with the request to prepare all 
the details for the foundation, and the sub-committee 
recommended that he be chosen as the architect to 
superintend the erection of the monument. He was 
chosen. The resolution was also adopted that the As- 
sociation accept the offer of Patrick Culleton and J. E. 
Kerregan to build the foundation according to the 
plans and specifications of W. B. W. Howe, Jr. Out 
of the thirteen bids, the offer of Mr. Emile T. Viett 
was accepted to build the monument of Winnsboro' 
granite, and set the bronze statue in place. During the 
July session of this same year Gen. C. I. Walker and 
Samuel G. Stoney, Esq., were chosen by the ladies to fill 
the vacancies in the committee of thirteen gentlemen, 
caused by the death of Hon. W. D. Porter and the 
resignation of Gen. Edward McCrady, Jr. In May, 1885^ 
Gen. B. H. Rutledge resigned. In March, 1886, the 
names of Hon. A. G. Magrath and Mr. W. H. Brawley 
were added to the list of the Advisory Committee, thus 
making fifteen instead of thirteen members. 



33 



About March, 1886, it was proposed that instead of 
the four allegorical figures, ''Truth, Justice, the Con- 
stitution and History," to be placed around on the base, 
there should be substituted four statues of distinguished 
South Carolina contemporaries of Mr. Calhoun. The four 
statesmen suggested were William Lowndes, Langdon 
Cheves, Robt. Y. Hajne and Hugh S. Legare. This prop- 
osition was never adopted, because, upon consultation 
with the artist, this substitution was found to be impracti- 
cable, as the statue being based on one concentrated idea 
the substitution would necessitate an entire change of 
that idea, and hence, of the whole work to the very 
foundation ; and further, the proposition was not 
adopted, because of the double expense and the greater 
length of time for completion that would be incurred. 

Under the Treasurer and her able business advisers, 
the fund of the Association had been managed with 
consummate skill, and upwards of $60,000 had accu- 
mulated. No expense was spared in making the foun- 
dation and pedestal solid, symmetrical and imposing. 
The granite structure stands thirty-six feet square and 
thirty-three feet in height, while the bronze statue is 
another fifteen feet high. The statue was cast at the 
San Michele Foundry, at Rome. 

Mr. W. Astor, United States Consul at Rome, having 
been repectfully requested to do so, acted as the agent 
of the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association, and from 
time to time gave them information on the subject of 
their work. 

The Association invited thirty-four young ladies to 
fill the role of unveilers at the ceremonies of present- 
ing the statue to the public. Thirty-four were chosen 
because there are thirty-four districts in the State, 



34 



These young ladies were, with few exceptions, related 
to Mr. or Mrs. Calhoun. There were also eight baby 
unveilers, great-grandchildren, and very near relatives 
of the statesman. All were requested by the Associa- 
tion to be dressed in the colours of the State — blue and 
white— and to wear a tree and crescent of palmetto, as 
badges. 

The Association tendered a vote of thanks to Judge 
Magrath for having arranged the programme for the 
ceremonies. 

Among others, special invitations were sent to Presi- 
dent Cleveland and Cabinet, the President of the Senate 
pro tern., the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
the Governors of the States, Mr. Jefferson Davis, Mr. Ven- 
able, of North Carolina; Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia; 
Prof Rivers, of South Carolina; Ex-Chief-Justice Daly, 
of New York; the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of 
South Carolina ; the Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives of South Carolina, the other State officials of South 
Carolina, the Mayor and City Council of Charleston, the 
Mayors and City Councils of Wilmington, N. C, of 
Fredericksburg, Ya., and of Petersburg, Ya., the sur- 
vivors of the " Committee of Twenty -five who had been 
appointed to go to Washington for Mr. Calhoun's body," 
the survivors of the " Committee of Fifty who had been 
appointed to make arrangements for the reception of 
the body," the surviving Marshals and Guard of Honour 
who officiated at his obsequies. Military and Civic 
Societies, Citadel Cadets, and to the members of Mr. 
Calhoun's family. Through a general and published 
announcement " the Directresses of the Ladies' Calhoun 
Monument Association, in behalf of themselves and all 
who assisted them in the accomplishment of the work 



35 



so eminently due to the memory of Mr. Calhoun ■' the 
entn*e public were invited to be present and take part 
in the great celebration. 

At the meeting held June 1st, 1886, the Gentlemen's 
Auxiliary Committee handed in the names of several 
distinguished statesmen, from whom a choice should be 
made of an orator to deliver an oration on this occasion 
of the consummation of the ladies' work, and the dedi- 
cation of the monument to Calhoun. The choice fell 
on the Hon. L. il C. Lamar, of Mississippi, Secretary 
of the Interior ; a mediator of peace and a reformer, a 
public servant faithful to his people, and efficient in the 
exercise of his trust, a zealous worker for the promo- 
tion of all pure and simple forms of government, he 
stands out to-day before the world a living example of 
a true citizen and unblemished statesman, an orator 
and a patriot, loving and beloved by all the inhab- 
itants of this broad land. In writing to the Chair- 
man of the Gentlemen's Committee, Mr. Lamar says 
in one of his letters: "The theme magnifies in im- 
portance as I study it. The more I consider the ca- 
reer and speeches of Mr. Calhoun the more firmly is 
the conviction riveted upon my mind that he was among 
the profound thinkers and great statesmen of the cen- 
tury pritmis inter pares. This can be shown within the 
limits of a not very long address. I am not sure that 
I can do it, even with opportunity for study and pre- 
paration, but if I can, it will be the proudest achieve- 
ment of my life, and one that I would be glad to make 
the peroration of my own humble career." 

Miss E. B. Cheesborough and Mrs. Margaret J. Pres- 
ton accepted invitations to write odes, and Paul 
H. Ilayne, just before his death, wrote to the Associa- 



REMARKS 



OF THE 



Presiding Officer, Mayor Wm. A. Courtenay, 
A DESCPilPTIOX 



OF THE 



PROCESSION AND CEREMONIES 




AT THE 



ilinj of k Uiooiie Mooiieii 

ON 26TH APRIL, 1887, 

AT 

Charleston, South Carolina, 

AXD 

ODES WRITTEN FOR THE OCCASION, 

BY 
Mrs. MARaARET J. PRESTON axd Miss E. B. CHEESBOROUGH. 




JOHN C. CALHOUN 



A GRAND CEREMONY AND A MAGNIFICENT 
CELEBRATION. 



[From the Netvs and Courier.] 

R^ „ 2-^ 
OBED in sunshine, redolent with the varied perfumes 
of her numerous gardens fanned hither and thither 
by exhiliarating breezes from the sea, Charleston, 
■^ resting in the lap of her encircling bay, smiled a 
most gracious welcome to her guests on Calhoun Day. Never 
was sky more clear or atmosphere more balmy. It was as if 
all the elements had combined to make a glorious, a perfect 
day. The heavy rains of Monday had washed the paved 
streets as clean as a new floor, showing off to great advantage 
this wonderful work of Mayor Courtenay's administration, and 
o-ivina: the soldiers the best marching route to be found in the 
country, while the rain and wind together had cooled the air so 
as to make military exercise a pleasure rather than a fatigue. 
Man seemed in unison with the elements, and from early dawn, 
when curious visitors began to roam the streets, until late at 
night, when the last roysterer returned to his lodgings, all went 
smoothly and happily. The assembly at the Battery, the pro- 
cession through the streets, the ceremonies at Marion Square, 
were all grand spectacles, attended by immense throngs and 
successfully conducted. 

At an early hour the city was astir from the Battery to the 
Forks of the Road and from the Cooper to the Ashley, and long 
before the time for the formation of the procession gay crowds 
were wending their way from the remoter quarters of the city to 
positions where a view could be obtained of one or the other of 
the great events of the day. Later, the streets were enlivened 
by military companies marching to and fro, and the music of 
numerous bands filled the air. By 12 o'clock the Battery and 
Marion Square were black with the immense throngs of people, 
while, on both sides of the mile and a half of Meeting street, 



42 

along which the procession was to move, and on East and South 
Battery, and King, Calhoun and Meeting streets, enclosing 
Marion Square on three sides and the Citadel on the other, every 
piazza, balcony, window, parapet and other point of vantage was 
occupied by eager spectators. Many of these people waited 
patiently for hours, and a large crowd lingered at Marion Square 
until the last act in the unveiling ceremonies had been per- 
formed. Notwithstanding the excitement and enthusiasm of the 
day, and the unprecedented number of visitors in the city, no 
accident or disturbance of any kind occurred to mar the perfect 
success of the celebration. 

Truly, the ladies of the Calhoun Monument Association may 
congratulate themselves on so brilliant a termination to their 
many years of earnest and consecrated labor. The assemblage 
of distinguished persons was most notable, the gathering of 
visitors from all parts of the State most flattering, the military 
display the grandest that has been seen in Charleston for many 
a long day, and last, but not least, the orator and the oration 
were worthy of the great man whose memory was honored. 

From the first rays of the sun the warriors were up and in 
arms getting ready for the pageant. The ladies, too, were up 
betimes. There were few houses in Charleston where an early 
and hasty breakfast was not served ; the ladies were up and 
ready, if the truth were known, long before the soldiers, and by 
9 o'clock the streets were alive with the gayest, largest and most 
variegated throng of people that has been seen here for many 
years. The crowd wandered in every direction — some towards 
Marion Square, some towards the Battery, some towards the 
hotels, and some to the various places along Meeting street where 
they had secured windows or balconies from which to view the 
procession. Flags fluttered to the crisp morning breeze from 
almost every building on the route of the procession. It was a 
bright, bracing day, a glorious April morn, with just a sufficient 
touch of early spring in the temperature to make a walk in the 
sun pleasant, and the entire population of Charleston was soon 
in the streets. 

As the day advanced the crowd in the streets increased, until 
by 10 o'clock pedestrian ism was almost impossible on the side- 
walks, while the horse-cars rushed along crowded to the plat- 
form with men, women and children. 



^3 
OX THE BATTERY. 

By 11 o'clock the stream of travel was divided, abont one- 
third flowing in the direction of the Battery, an equal number 
in the direction'of Marion Square, while the others were safely 
housed in their special windows along the route. The First 
Battalion reached the general rendezvous first, taking up their 
position on East Battery. They were followed by the E^giment 
of visiting companies, and then by the Artillery, Dragoons and 
Cadets. Thousands of civilians followed them, and in a short 
time the place was densely crowded. It was a bright scene. The 
waters in the harbour were glassy, not a ripple disturbing the 
bosom of the water, in which numerous vessels lay, gaily decked 
in bunting from stem to stern. The bayonets of the soldiers 
glistening Jn the sun. their handsome uniforms mingling with 
the varied colors of the many brilliant parasols and dresses of 
the ladies, with the dark green of the trees in White Point Gar- 
den as a background, formed a kaleidoscope of rich colors, the 
shifting beauties of which would defy the brush of an artist. 
Gaily caparisoned staff officers galloped hither and thither, 
moving the^troops into line, while the music of a half dozen 
Military bands enlivened the scene. 

THE PEOCESSIOX— A MAGXIEICEXT PAGEANT. 

Promptly at noon the vast crowd of soldiers and citizens who 
were to take part in the procession were got into line and the 
grand pageant moved off in three divisions. 

Meeting street from the Battery was by this time entirely 
blocked with people. It is estimated that there could have 
been not less than twenty thousand people gathered along the 
route of the parade. The apj)roach of the column was heralded 
by an almost endless procession of street cars, which had been 
packed at the Battery terminus of the City Eailway. Then 
came a single policeman and the procession itself, which took 
thirty-five minutes to pass a given point, and which was com- 
posed as follows: 

Hois. H. E. TouxG as Chief Marshal, and his Assi.-tants. 
GoYEKSOK EicHAKDSON and 5>taff, with Adj t Gen. Boxham. 



44 

Miisic. 

Gex. T. a. Huguenix, Commanding the Division, and Staff. 

Music. 

Eegimest of Visiting Troops, comprising the following 
companies: 

1. Gordon Light Infantry, of Winusboro', Capt. W. G. Jor- 
dan, l.ieut. J. W. Siegler, 32 men. Uniform of dark blue 
trimmed in light bine, white cross belts and blue and white 
epaulettes, and blue kepies with white feather plumes. 

2. Governor's Guards, of Columbia, Capt. Wilie Jones, Lieuts. 
E. E. Calvo and George K. Wright. 35 men. Uniform, cadet 
grey faced with black and trimmed with gold, grey kepies, 
white plumes, epaulettes of white and gold. 

3. Richland Volunteer Eifles, of Columbia, Capt. Chas. Xewn- 
hf ji, Lieuts. J. K. Alston and Chas. Cronenberg, 30 men. Uni- 
ff rm, cadet grey trimmed and faced with black and gold, white 
and gold epaulettes, cross belts and kepies with white pompons. 

4. Catawba Rifles, of Rock Hill, Capt. Allan Jones, Lieut. R. 
T. Fewell, 30 men. Uniform, cadet grey, faced and trimmed 
with green and gold. 

5. Greenville Guards, Capt. J. M. Patrick, Lieuts. P. W. 
Seyles and William Hunt, 30 men. State regulation uniform. 

6. Abbeville Rifles, Capt. W. C. McGowan, Lieuts. A. W. 
Smith and G. B. Lythgoe, 30 men. State regulation uniform. 

T. Darlington Guards, Capt. E. R. Mclver, Lieut. J. K. 
Mclver, Acting Lieut. J. S. l^urch, 30 men. Uniform, olive 
green, faced with buff and trimmed with gold, green kepies 
with white and green pompons. 

S. Florence Rifles, Capt. J. W. Elgie, Lieuts. W. M. Brown 
and J. P. McXeill, 30 men. State regulation uniform. 

9. Sumter Light Infantry. Capt. H. F. Wilson, Lieuts. R. A. 
Bryan. A. C. Phelps and L. W. Dick, SO men. State regula- 
tion uniform. 

Brig. -Gen. R. X. Richbourg, of Columbia, commanded the 
companies of the Second Brigade; Brig.-Gen. W. E. James, of 
Darlington, the companies of the Third Brigade, and Col. J. Q. 
Marshall those of the Palmetto Regiment. 



45 

Music. 

Beaufort Volunteer Artillery, Capt. B. B. Sams, Lieut. A, P. 
Prioleau, 36 men. 

The company is uniformed in grey, trimmed with crimson 
and gold, and paraded as infantry, with muskets and knap- 
sacks, presenting a splendid appearance. Indeed, the entire 
regiment of visiting troops attracted much attention by their 
handsome appearance, their soldierly bearing and their evolu- 
tions. 

Music. 

Battalion of Citadel Cadets, 100 strong, Lieut. A. L. 
Mills, U. S. A., commanding; Cadet Lieut. W. H. Allen, adju- 
tant. 

First Company, Cadet Capt. C. B. Ashley, Lieuts. H. A. Brun- 
son and E. E. Lee. 

Second Comj)any, Cadet Capt, G. A. Lucas, Lieut. L L Bag- 
nal. 

Third (Jompany, Cadet Capt. K. R. Jeter, Lieut. B. L. Clark. 

Fourth Company, Cadet Capt. AV, L. Bond, Lieut. E. A. 
Laird. 

Music. 

First Battalion Infantjiy, 4th brigade, Lieut. -Col. L. 
DeB. McCrady; Adjutant, Lieut. F. J. Devereux; Surgeon, Dr. 
P. G. DeSaussure; Quartermaster, Lieut. J. H. lleins; Judge 
Advocate, Lieut. C. B. Northrop. 

1. German Fusiliers, Capt. H. Schachte, 48 men. 

2. Palmetto Guards, color company, Capt. E. L. Bull, 45 
men. 

3. Irish Volunteers, Capt. C. A. McHugh, 30 men. 

4. Montgomery (luards, Capt. D. O'Neill, 35 men. 

5. Washington Light Infantry, Capt. J. Lamb Johnston, 52 
men. 

Drum Corps. 

Second Battalion of Infantry, 4th brigade, Capt. B. H. 
Rutledge, commanding. 

1. Sumter Guards, Capt. S. Hyde, Jr., 61 men. 

2. Carolina Rifles, Lieut. H. M. Tucker, Jr., 30 men. 

Music. 



46 

FiEST Regiment of Artillery, Capt. F. W. Wagener com- 
manding. 

1. Pioneer Corps, Capt. F. Melchers. 

2. German Artillery Band, Capt. Andreas Wagener. 

3. First company German Artillery, dismounted, Lieut. J. 
F. Meyer. 

4. Second Company BaUery, Lieut. J. F. Lilienthal, total 
150 men. 

5. Lafayette Artillery, Capt. H. L. P. Bolger, 40 men. 

Music. 

First Brigade Cavalry, Gen. C. St. G. Sinkler command- 
ing. 

1. German Hussars, Capt. J. Ancrum Simons, 25 men. 

2. Charleston Light Dragoons, Capt. S. G. Stoney, 25 men. 

3. Eutaw Light Dragoons, Capt. J. S. Porcher, 20 men. 

The Second Division. 

This Division comprised all the civil organizations. Never, 
perhaps, since the funeral of the immortal Calhoun have the 
civil societies of Charleston turned out in such large numbers 
or with such full ranks to do honour to occasion of any kind. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that this feature of the procession 
should have proved oue of the most conspicuous and interesting 
to viewers of the grand pageant, both by reason of its novelty 
and because of the splendid display made by the various organi- 
zations, the members of which paraded in citizens' dress, most 
of them wearing badges and carrying walking-sticks. 

This Division was formed on the south side of South Battery, 
with right resting on Meeting street, and fell into line behind 
the Battalion of Artillery in the following order : 

Marshals— :i'3ime& F. Redding and John C. Mallonee. 

St. Patrick's Benevolent Society, over seventy years old, 
turned out 300 strong, and headed by President Thomas Flynn 
and Vice-President William E. Milligan. The members paraded 
in suits of black with knots of gieen ribbon jn their button- 
holes, marching beneath the folds of their ancient and honoured 
banner, which was borne in the funeral pageant of Calhoun 
thirty-seven years ago. 



47 

The German Friendly Society, organized over one hundred 
and twenty-four years ago, with a membership of one hundred 
and eighty members, appeared in large force under the super- 
vision of President F. Von Santen and Marshal Jacob Kruse. 

The Medical Society of S. C, represented by Drs. F. Peyre 
Porcher, Robert L. Brodie and John Guiteras. 

The High School of Charleston turned out in larger force 
than at the funeral of Mr. Calhoun in 1850, one hundred and 
eighty lads being present yesterday. Accompanying them in 
the procession were Mr. Virgil C. Dibble, principal, and Messrs. 
G. G. Leland, Thos. Delia Torre, W. M. Whitehead, W. H. 
Schaefer and F, P. Valdez, teachers. Each pupil wore a dainty 
satin badge bearing the seal of the school and an appropriate 
legend. 

The College of Charleston was represented by President Shep- 
herd and Professors F. W. Capers, G. E. Manigault and Sylvester 
Primer, of the faculty. 

Marshals — E. J. Kirk, George W. Williams, Jr., F. F. Jones. 

Mechanics' Union No. 1, organized in 1869. The Union was 
the first civic organization to appear at the rendezvous, which 
they did under command of President J. D. Murphy. One 
hundred and fifty members paraded, each wearing an appro- 
priate white badge. 

South Carolina Division of the Travellers' Protective Associ- 
ation, President E. C. Green, of Sumter, commanding ; J. A. 
Enslow, Jr., adjutant. The T. P. A.'s turned out with 75 
worthy drummer boys in ranks, including President George W. 
Clotworthy, of the Maryland Division ; President E. N. Car- 
penter, of the Wilmington Division, and other distinguished 
members of the fraternity. Each of the members carried canes, 
which they used while marching, going through the manual of 
the walking-stick. The escutcheon of the T. P. A.'s, a typical 
drum mounted on a red wooden frame, was carried by two 
Africans. Conspicuous about it were the decorations of green 
laurel, emblematic of the verdant named president of the divi- 
sion, dashed here and there with crushed-strawberry colored 
ribbons. 

Last in order came the Vanderbilt Benevolent Association, 
headed by Metz's Band, and commanded by Henry Buist, Jr., 



48 

captain; H. A. Pregnall, marshal. The Vanderbilts paraded 
175 men, and made a splendid appearance. President Kaufman 
took position in the ranks, having given way to Mr. Henry Buist, 
Jr. The Association banner was carried by Mr. John T. 
Forbes, who was supported on the sides by Vice-Presidents J, 
F. Witcofskey and J. G. Graddick. 

The Third Division. 

What might be termed the Third Division of the civic and 
military pageant was one in which for various reasons much of 
the interest of the day was centred. First, because it included 
the distinguished visitors, and the ladies of the Monument As- 
sociation and the young lady unveilers This Division began 
with the Independant Order of Odd Fellows and ended with 
a troop of cavalry of young gentlemen, the line extending for 
about a quarter of a mile. Among those who had been as- 
signed places in this division were the Free Masons, the Knights 
of Honor, the Knights of Pythias, the Commissioners of Marion 
Square, the officers of the South Carolina Military Academy, 
civil and military officers of the United States, civil and mili- 
tary officers of the State, members of the State Senate and 
House of Eepresentatives, and surviving officers and members 
of the Palmetto Regiment. None of the foregoing sub-divis- 
ions paraded as such, but were individually represented in other 
parts of the general parade. 

Those who were represented as bodies, however, were as fol- 
lows : 

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 54 strong, in full 
regalia, under the command of District Deputy Grand Master 
Gerhard Riecke. 

The sub-divisions of the Order and their commanding officers 
were : 

South Carolina Lodge, No. 1, A. J. Tiencken. 
Marion Lodge, No. 2, J. J. Rose. 
Howard Lodge, No. 3, H. Dublin. 
Schiller Lodge, No. 30, J. H. C. Otjen. 

The Marshals in charge of the Odd Fellows and that part of 
the line extending as far as the ladies of the Association, were 



49 

Gen. J. M. Johnson of Marion, Messrs. E. J. Kirk, Geo. W. 
Williams, Jr., and Frank Jones. 

The Foreign Consuls who attended the procession, but who 
did not appear as such, were, Consul Nicanor Lopez, y Chacon ; 
and Vice Consul Frederico Janer, of Spain; Consul Cridland, of 
England; and M. Paul Du Jardin, Vice-Consul, representing the 
French Republic. 

The representatives of the officers of the Confederate Army 
who appeared in that capacity, were, Mr. T. D. Waring, of the 
old Washington Artillery, and Capt. C. A. Scanlan, of the 1st 
Regulars South Carolina. 

Next in the procession came the distinguished guests of the 
city and of the Ladies' Association. The arrangements made 
by the Chief Marshal for these were as follows : 

First carriage : .'Secretary L. Q. C. Lamar, orator of the 
day, Postmaster General Vilas, Ex-Governor A. G. Magrath, of 
South Carolina, and Mayor Courtenay, of Charleston. 

Second carriage : Secretary of the Treasury Fairchild, 
United States Senator Hampton, Ex-Governor J. C. Sheppard, 
of South Carolina, and Col. P. C. Gaillard. 

Third carriage : United States Senator D. W. Voorhees, of 
Indiana United States Senator Butler, of South Carolina, Col. 
W. J. DeTreville, of Orangeburg, representing the State of 
New Jersey, and Gen. B. H. Rutledge, of Charleston. 

Fourth carriage : Col. Hooker, representing the State of 
Mississippi, Congressman J. J. Hemphill, Superintendent of 
Education Dawson and Major W. H. Brawley. 

Fifth carriage: Mr. L. Q. C. Lamar, Jr., Mr. L. Q. 
Washington, Col. Isaac Hayne, and the Eev. Dr. C. C. Pinckney. 

Sixth carriage : Gen. Rudolph Seigiing, the Rev. Dr. W. F. 
Junkin, Hon. Wm. F. Colcock and the Hon. W. Porcher Miles. 

Seventh carriage : The Hon. James Simons, Speaker of the 
House of Representives of the State of South Carolina, the Hon. 
C. H. Simonton, United States District Judge, Ex-Attorney 
General of the State of South Carolina Charles Richardson Miles 
and Ex-United States Judge George S. Bryan. 

Eighth carriage : Comptroller-General of the State of South 
Carolina W. E. Stoney, Congressman William Elliott, of the 
9th South Carolina District, Mr. S. P. Ravenel and Congress- 
man S. Dibble of the First South Carolina District. 

7 



50 

Tenth carriage : Gen. C. I. Walker, Col. "Wm. Fleming, 
representing the State of Florida, the Rev. Dr. Stakely. and the 
Eev. John 0. Willson. 

Eleventh carriage : Mr. R. N. Gourdin, Mrs. H. E. Young, 
Mrs. A. P. Calhoun and Miss Margaret Calhoun. 

Twelfth carriage : Commodore D. N. Ingraham, Mrs. D. X. 
Ingraham, Mr. Geo. H. Ingraham and Mrs. Geo. H. Ingraham. 

To these succeeded the carriages containing the members and 
directresses of the Ladies' Calhoun Monumental Association. 

The Association was represented as follows : 

Officers — Mrs. George Robertson, president ; Mrs. H. W. De- 
Saussure, vice-president ; Mrs. Joseph Walker, vice-president ; 
Mrs. Joseph Blaekman, corresponding secretary : Miss Fannie 
E. DeSaussure. recording secretary ; Mrs. M. A. Snowden, 
treasurer. 

Directresses — Mrs. Joseph Aiken, Mrs. S. Atkins. Miss E. B. 
Cheesborough, Miss Maria C. Cheesborough, Mrs. Louis D. 
DeSaussure, Mrs. ^£arion DuBose, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Fitch, 
Mrs. Cornelia Grayson, Mrs. Mary Gregg, Mrs. E. C. Legare. 
Mrs. John A. Leland, Mrs. J. Lockwood, Miss Marianne Porcher, 
Mrs. Saml D. Stoney, Mrs. T. J. Pickens. 

The carriages containing the ladies of the Association and 
other ladies and gentlemen were aligned as follows : 

First carriage : Mrs. George Robertson, president of the As- 
sociation, Mrs. M. A. Snowden, treasurer, Mrs. Joseph Black- 
man, corresponding secretary and Miss May Snowden. 

Second carriage: Mrs. Thomas Pickens, Mrs. Samuel B. Pick- 
ens, Mrs. Mary Gregg., and Mrs. Joseph Walker, vice-presi- 
dent 

Third carriage : Mrs. Samuel D. Stoney, Mrs. Eliza Legare, of 
Aiken, Mrs. Henry Grayson and Miss Marianne Porcher. 

Fourth carriage : Mrs. Elizabeth Fitch, Mrs. J. Lockwood, 
Mrs. John A. Leland and Mrs. Joseph Aiken 

Fifth carriage : Mr. John C. Calhoun with Julia Calhoun, 
(baby unveiler,) Mr. Patrick Calhonn with Ben Putnam Cal- 
houn, (baby unveiler,) Mr. B. P. Calhoun with William 
Lowndes Calhoun, (baby unveiler,) and Mr. W. A. Ancrum 
with Sadie Ancrum (baby unveiler) 

Sixth carriage : The Rev. John Johnson with Floride John- 
son, (baby unveiler,) Col. S. B. Pickens with Fioride Pickens, 



51 

(baby unveiler,) Mr. Andrew Calhoun with James and Adam 
Calhoun (baby unveilers). 

A carriage containing Mrs, Governor J. P. Richardson, Miss 
Belle McCaw, of Yorkville Miss Coy Yonmans, of Columbia, 
and Miss Anna Keitt. 

Next came ten carriages containing thirty-four young lady un- 
veilers, who represented the thirty-four counties of South Caroli- 
na. Their names were Misses Conyers Pickens, Emmie Holmes, 
Camilla Johnson, Saidee Simonds, Eliza Calhoun Carrere, 
Norma E. Carrere, Irene Bulow, Mary Pickens, Eugenia Cal- 
houn Frost, Bessie P. Eavenel, Virginia Porcher, Emma 
Boylston, Janie Simons, Edith Courtenay, N. R. Hill, Minnie 
Vaux, V. Marion Legare, Dora Kirk, Maria Ravenel, Kate C. 
Waties, Kate Marshall, Kittie Pcrrin, Kate C. Parker, Clarkie 
Cothran, Marion Mitchell, Louise Calhoun, Coodie Calhoun, 
Sadie Calhoun, Izzie Bratton, Maria Calhoun Butler, Sallie E. 
Gregg, Annie F. Caldwell, Katie Houston and Miss Mcintosh. 

The Marshals, or rather Guards of Honor, of the preceding 
ladies of the Association and their lady friends, were as follows: 
Mr. Clarence Cuningham, marshal-in-chief, and Messrs. P. 
Noble Simons, W. Bonneau Bennett, W. W. Butler, Samuel W. 
Pickens, Edward Hughes, Gregg Chisolm, W. Moultrie Gour- 
din, Edward Frost, R. Goodwyn Rhett, William Robertson, 
Heyward Jervey, Daniel linger and Julian Wells, all of whom 
acted under the selection of their lady friends. 

Another carriage contained the Rev. Dr. C. S. Vedder, rep- 
resenting the New England Society, and Dr. Middleton Michel, 
representing the South Carolina Medical Society. The marshal 
of this special carriage was Mr. C. Fitzsimons. The other 
marshals in charge of the general line were Messrs. L. R. Stau- 
denmeyer, William Gregg, Yates Snowden and E. B. Hume. 

As already mentioned, the procession was closed by a troop 
of cavalrv in citizens' dress. 



AT AIAIUON SQL ARE. 



A Description of the Vast Assemblage — The Distin- 
guished Guests who were Present — The Ceremonies 
OF THE Unveiling. 

The scene on Marion Square at the outset of the ceremonies 
at that point formed a brilliant and impressive picture, the 
features of which can scarcely be described in the cold language 
of print, but will remain indelibly fixed in the mind of every 
one who was present, as actor or observer. 

The great plaza was crowded to its utmost borders with such 
an assemblage as is rarely seen anywhere. Every county in the 
State was represented in the throng. The dwellers in the city, 
who seemed, indeed, to have come together from every side in 
obedience to a common impulse, found themselves lost in the 
multitude of their visitors and became as strangers in sight 
of their own homes. For a considerable distance in every 
direction around the statue and speaker's stand, people were 
massed together so densely that it was impossible to pass the 
living barriers. They who were without could get no nearer, 
while those who constituted the charmed inner circle could not 
possibly have escaped from their position of high privilege by 
any means short of a balloon, or a battery of artillery, or some- 
thing of that general character. Far out from the centre the 
plaza was crowded a great deal too thickly for comfort, and if 
the ''touch of the elbow" is indeed a sign of a common purpose 
between him who gives and him who receives it, there can be no 
question whatever that all South Carolina had a common 
object in view yesterday. Looking down from any point of 
vantage the great square presented, for the most part, the ap- 
pearance of a sea of human heads — or human hats, to be more 
accurate — with umbrellas and parasols for breakers, and with 
new currents flowing in steadily all around its shores without 
visibly raising the general level. A great wave had evidently 



53 

dashed against the grassy slope in the front of the battlemented 
Citadel, and left many waifs stranded high and dry on its green 
summit and sides. The Citadel itself seemed to be staring with 
all its hundred eyes, and with a particularly wide open mouth, 
at the wonderful spectacle presented to its view without so 
much as a word of warning. The lines of the streets were 
wholly blotted out for the time, the crowd covering the plaza, 
the sidewalks and the roadway alike with a common mantle of 
humanity, and producing the curious impression that the sea 
already mentioned had burst its curbstone banks somehow, and 
overflowed to the foot of the precipitous brick hills beyond. 
The brick hills, of course, bad windows in them. The meta- 
phor should be drojDped at this point, therefore to avoid possible 
embarrassment. Every window, from basement to attic, was 
full of bright, fair faces, and very many others not so fair, 
looked out from behind the chimney tops or peered over the 
edges of the roofs as though seeking a soft paving stone for 
their owners to fall on, if emergency required. The belfry of 
the Orphanhouse, a quarter of a mile away, was seen to be filled 
with spectators. The church steeples nearer at hand suddenly 
assumed an air of peculiar bleakness and extraordinary roomi- 
ness as to their outside, simply because of the wasted space they 
afforded to the view in so marked contrast with all their su)-- 
roun dings. 

The stage which occupied a large space between the monu- 
ment ana Calhoun street, was scarcely less crowded than the 
grounds around it, and presented a truly animated appearance 
on every account. 

The decorations were of the most elaborate kind, perhaps, that 
have ever been displayed in Charleston. The idea running 
through all the work was that it should be typical of South 
Carolina's garden and forest products. For this reason the 
pine, palmetto and laurel appeared conspicuously among the 
general features of the design. 

The appointments of the stage were made under the superin- 
tendence of Dr. H. S. Horlbeck, assisted by Messrs. C. Richard- 
son Miles, James P. Lesesne, C. F. Hani, Glenn E. Davis and 
others. The material used was largely furnished by Dr. A. B. 
Eose, who sent pine boughs, moss, laurel trees, &c., to the city 
by the car load, for the use of the decoration committee. 



54 

The view of the stage from any point in front was exceed- 
ingly striking. First might be noted the lavish display of 
flags — city flags, State flags, our National flags, and flags from 
the mastheads of nearly every ship of every nationality in port. 
These were particularly noticeable over and around the speaker's 
pavilion, and of themselves would have been a conspicuous 
feature. 

The next noteworthy detail of the display was the long and 
wavy festoons of moss which were stretched along the whole 
front of the stage. These were the work of the employees at 
the City Hospital, under tlie direction of Superintendent Hard. 
From the middle point of the reverse curve of each loop de. 
pended a graceful and emblematic laurel wreath. These were 
twenty-five in number, and were contributed by a number of 
ladies of Charleston. Immediately above each wreath rose a 
staff from which a flag floated gaily, and, indeed, as already 
stated, the number of banners and bannerets was countless, and 
had their effect much heightened by the breeze which stirred 
them into life in keeping with the flutter of excitement around 
the monument. The securing of the flags and their disposition 
were the work of Messrs. Tudor Hall and William H. Barnwell. 
The pine boughs were also a prominent feature of the decoration. 

Two of the most remarkable, and at the same time most ap- 
propriate of the details were palmetto trees, one on either side 
of the pavilion. They were brought to the city from Kiawah 
Island, and were about thirty feet in height, and excellent spec- 
imens of the tree. Against each of these trees was placed a shield, 
on one of which was the familiar Dum spiro spero, and on the 
other the equally familiar Animis opibusque parati. 

The speaker's stand was literally enveloped with flags, and on 
the orator's desk was placed a magnificent plateau of roses, the 
contribution of Master H. Legare. The whole effect was exceed- 
ingly attractive, and was commented upon favorably for the good 
taste displayed in the arrangements, and for the magnificence of 
the exhibition. 

Immediately under the waving boughs of these symbolic trees 
of State and under the folds of an immense United States flag 
draped between their feathery crests, sat Mr. Secretary Lamar, 
the orator of the occasion. On either side and in the rear of his 
position, were grouped the distinguished gentlemen who had 



55 

accompanied him on his patriotic mission — Secretary Fairchild, 
Postmaster General Vilas, Senator Voorhees, Mr. T. B, Ferguson, 
assistant United States commissioner of fisheries, and Mr. L. Q. 
Washington. Col. Reginald Hart, a distinguished member of 
the New York bar, though not connected with Mr. Lamar's 
part}^, was also present. The State was well represented by her 
most prominent living sons. Among the number of those who 
were on the stand were : 

Governor Richardson, Lieutenant-Governor Mauldin, Senator 
Hamilton, Senator Butler, Mayor Courtenay, Congressman Dib- 
ble, Congressman Hemi^hill, Congressman Elliott, Ex-Governor 
Sheppard, Ex-Governor Bonham, Ex-Governor Magrath, Judge 
Simonton, Judge Bryan, Gen. John Bratton, Gen. Rudolph 
Siegling, Gen. George D. Johnston, Gen. James F. Izlar, the 
Hon. W. Porcher Miles, Gen. B. H. Rutledge, Ex-Attorney 
General Miles, Speaker Simons, Comptroller General Stoney, 
Judge A. C. Haskell, the Rev. C. C. Pinckney, D. D., the Rev. 
C. A. Stakely, Judge Aldrich, Solicitor W. Perry Murphy, Rep- 
resentative C. J. C. Hutson, Col. S. B. Pickens, Solicitor H. H. 
Newton, Col. John B. Palmer, Col. Robert Aldrich, Adjutant- 
General Bonham, Mr. Jos. AV. Barnwell, Major H. E. Young, 
State Chemist Chazal, Major W. H. Brawle}', the Rev. John 0. 
Willson. Hon. D. S. Henderson, Col. John Cuningham. 

THE CEREMONIES-MAYOR COURTENAY'S ADDRESS. 

By 1 o'clock the crowd had settled into such order as could 
be expected from so large a concourse, the military had assumed 
their j)laces, adding greatly, by their appearance, to the attrac- 
tiveness of the scene, and the ceremonies were begun at that 
hour, without the delay and confusion usually incident to pub- 
lic occasions. 

At the request of the Association, the meeting was called to 
order by the Chief Marshal Maj. H. E. Young, and Mayor 
Courtenay invited to preside. 

On taking the chair, Mayor Courtenay opened the proceed- 
ings with the following address : 

Ladies and Fellow-citizens: This is a memorable anniver- 
sary day ! At this hour thirty-seven years ago the most solemn and 



56 

imposing public pageant ever seen in Charleston had emerged 
from this spacious square and contiguous streets; it wended its 
way through the greatest length of the city; it embraced in its 
crowded ranks all the manhood of this community and the thous- 
ands who had flocked in from beyond its bound arit-s, while from 
window and balcony and every available standing place the fair 
daughters of our city and State were sad and silent spectators of 
these public honours, given with one voice, and by a common im- 
pulse, to our illustrious dead. 

No one, however young, who witnessed that public demonstra- 
tion of respect and affection can ever forget the 26th of April, 
1850 — an entire city shrouded with the emblems of mourning, 
whilst uncounted thousands preserved for hours a continuous 
and profound silence, " The grief that does not speak, whis- 
pers the o'er fraught heart." 

The last sad offices discharged, the remains of John C. Calhoun 
were buried here, in the heart of this metropolis of South 
Carolina, confided to us as a precious trust, which our people 
have watched over with jealous care, and at whose suggestion 
the State has raised the imposing tomb which now encloses his 
honored remains. 

This thirty-seventh anniversary day witnesses the same devo- 
tion to the memory of the illustrious dead. It is, however, 
peculiarly touching, as the day of successful culmination of the 
work of the women of Carolina, in perpetuating the name and 
fame of John C. Calhoun. 

" Whatever transports us from the present to the past, from 
the near to the remote, widens the mind as well as instructs it ; 
makes it reflective, sets it free ; whatever recalls to us eminent 
persons, their commanding intellects and engaging parts, above 
all their fortitude and self-saorifice, reinforces our manhood, 
and encourages our virtue.'' 

The enduring bronze that is uncovered here, and will here re- 
main a witness to coming generations of honour and veneration, 
is the tribute of Carolina's daughters. It is sacred as their 
thought, their sentiment, and their labor. The truth, the puri- 
ty, the nobility, the intellectual and moral greatness of the dead, 
are exalted in the gracious keeping of their tender and lo3'al 
hearts. 

All honour to them in their work of patriotism and love. All 




JOHN C. CALHOUN 



■'no-/iy 



57 

honor to them in their unfaltering following, amid dire trials 
and fateful struggles, of this high purpose, and its final achieve- 
ment this day. To them be our gratitude for rearing this grand 
memorial, that will forever keep before us the form and counte- 
nance of him whose mind ruled so majestically in life; who, 
whatever may have been the fate of some of his public opin- 
ions in the logic of events in his country's history, has this day 
the homage of his countrymen everywhere, for his vast intellect- 
ual power, his high moral purpose, his unbending will, his un- 
sullied public and private life, and his supreme devotion to 
duty. 

THE REV. DR. PINCKNEY'S PRAYER. 

The opening prayer was delivered by the Rev. Charles Cotes- 
worth Pinckney, D. D., and was as follows : 

God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we adore Thee as 
the Creator of all things, the Ruler of heaven and earth. Thou 
art our God, and we will praise Thee, our fathers' God, and we 
will bless Thee. We acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. 

We thank Thee for the goodly heritage Thou hast given us, 
and for all Thy mercies to our native land. Whom Thou wilt 
Thou liftest up. and whom Thou wilt Thou casteth down, and 
in Thy wisdom Thou has given us a place among the nations of 
earth. We bless Thee, Lord, for Thy guiding hand in our 
history, and for the gift of wise and upright rulers to lead Thy 
people in the right way. We thank Thee for the good example 
of every patriotic man who has lived, not for himself, but for 
his country. We gratefully record the virtues of that pure and 
eminent statesman whose public services we commemorate to- 
day, and to whose memory we dedicate this monument. May 
the lasting gratitude of his fellow-citizens incite our public men 
to follow with equal courage the path of duty. Whatsoever 
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
are just, pure, and of good report, may we all follow these 
things as he did. 

Continue Thy mercies, God, to our native land. Save us 
from sin, which is a reproach to any people. Deliver us from na- 
tional judgments, foreign oppression, from intestine strife, from 
lawlessness and violence. Bless the Piesident of the LTnited 



58 

States, and all others in autlioritj. Direct our counsellors, and 
teach our Senators wisdom, and overrule all events to promote 
the glory of Thy name, the good of Thy church, the safety, 
lionor and welfare of Thy people. All which we ask in the 
name of Thy Son, Jesus Si)irit, to whom with the E'ather and the 
Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen. 

After a brief interval the appointed signal Avas given, and a 
band in the midst of the filaza suddenly poured forth the inspir- 
ing strains of "Dixie." The vast multitude instantly recog- 
nized the familiar strains before half a dozen notes had 
sounded, and began to cheer. In the same instant the chords 
were drawn by the hands of fair young girls, the flags that had 
closely draped the statue up to this time mysteriously quitted 
their place and floated away to the height of the neighboring- 
standard, and the majestic form of the great statesman stood 
revealed to tlie eyes of his people — towering high above their 
heads, as he had towered in life above the men of his day and 
generation. 

It was an impressive moment, and its signiricanee seemed felt 
by every heart in the assembled host. The shouting was quickly 
succeeded by a deep silence, and every eye became fixed upon 
the stern, bronzed face. The attitude of the figure is that 
assumed by Mr. Calhoun in delivering an address, and it seemed 
for a few moments as if the people felt themselves to be in his 
presence and expected him to speak to them again in the long- 
bushed accents of wisdom and warning. 

The silence was more pleasantly broken, however, by the voice 
of the living instead, and the Rev. Charles A. Stakely reading 
the following ode, which was composed for the occasion by Miss 
Chcesborough: 

CALHOUN. 
Odk, by Miss E. B. Ciieesborough. 

Wlien Truth lookod from her starry heights 

Aud called tor thaiupions brave, 
He heard the suininons and went forth 

His native Soutli to save. 

Her balance in his honest hands 

Fair Justice easjer placed. 
Wliile Wisdom, with her radiant crown, 

His subtle genius graced. 



59 

The Constitution was liis stai-. 

And guided by its liglit, 
He strove to steer the Ship of State 

Through the darkness of the night. 

Dishonor, worse to him than death, 

He sternly kept at bay, 
And, on the whitest heights of Truth, 

Serenely took his way. 

Invincible in logic stern, 

All potent in debate, 
He sent the arrows winging back 

To the envenomed heart of hate. 

He l)ore the odium of reproach 

While battling for the right; 
His propliet voice in clarion tones 

Foretold tlie coming night 

When suns would set o'er fields of blood, 
And stars shine o'er the same. 

When War's dread torches, hot and red, 
O'er Southern homes would flame. 

0, prophet of the eagle eye I 

0, patriot Avithout stain ! 
Thou'st given a priceless gift to us 

In thy untarnished name. 

For this we've sought to honor thee. 
Great champion of the Truth; 

And fain would have this hallowed spot 
A Mecca for our youth. 

That journeying hither they may learn 

To battle for the right. 
Bearing Truth's oriflamme aloft. 

Undaunted in the fight. 

Through all our golden jasmine Vjowers, 
And through magnolia's bloom. 

One name we'll waft on wings of love, 
Thy honored name, CALHOUN. 

Float it above the city's spires. 

And o'er the bay's blue tide. 
Tell how he battled for the South, 

And battling thus — he died. 



60 

We women ask no brighter fate, 

We seek no loftier fame, 
Than thus to link our memories 

With his immortal name. 

While History weaves for him her crown, 

The fairest ever seen, 
Carolina's daughters long will strive 

To keep the garland green. 



ORATION 



ON THE 



LIFE, CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF THE 



Hon, John C, Calhoun 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 





^1( 




AND THE PUBLIC, 



AT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, 



r.Y THE 



Hon. L. Q. C. LAMAR, 



AS REVISED BY HIMSELF. 



ORATION OF THE HON. L. Q. C. LAMAR. 



.^ 



WE are assembled to unveil the statue which has 
been erected to commemorate the life and services 
of John Caldwell Calhoun. It is an interesting 
fact that this statue is reared, not in the centre of 
political power, (the Capital of the Nation,) or in the emporium 
of American material civilization, but in his own native State, 
where he lived all his life and where he was buried. This cir- 
cumstance is in harmony with the life and character of the man. 
One of the most impressive traits of that life and character was 
the attachment between himself and the people of South Caro- 
lina. His devotion to their welfare was sleepless, and they 
always felt a deep, unfaltering, proud and affectionate reliance 
upon his wisdom and leadership. This faith in him grew out of 
the fact that he was, notwithstanding his imposing position as 
a national statesman, a home man; a man identified in senti- 
ment and sympathy with his own people, who, as neighbors and 
friends, standing face to face with him, had that insight into 
his private life and character which is seldom, if ever, disclosed 
in the public arena — the real life of motive, and purpose, and 
feeling. In this intimacy of personal intercourse, wherein the 
qualities of mind and heart are unconsciously drawn out, there 
was revealed to them a noble, lovely character, full of tender- 
ness and self-sacrifice, gentleness and candor, and a simplicity 
and beautiful truth of soul which made him the light of their 
eyes and the pride of their heart. 

Mr. Calhoun had a profound faith in the worth and dignity 
and destiny of man as the noblest of all God^s creatures on 
earth, endowed with those great faculties and capacities which 
fit him, through society and free institutions, under Divine su- 
perintendence, for progress, development and perfection. Con- 
scious of his own great powers, he must have been; but exalted 
as he was in position, thought and purpose, so far was he from 



64 

feeling that these advantages lifted him above and apart from 
the mass of men, that he regarded tliem as so many ties of union 
and brotherhood with his fellow-men, to be devoted to their 
welfare and happiness. Whenever, therefore, he returned from 
the brilliant scenes of the National Capital to his home, instead 
of coming as a great Senator, to be admired at a distance, he 
met the people as friends and brothers, all of whom, of every 
degree and class and character, felt in the warm grasp of his 
hand a fraternal regard that entered with deep and unaffected 
sympathy into their feelings, their interests, their wants, their 
sorrows and their Joys. 

Their instinctive perception of the genuine greatness of the 
man, of his open-hearted largeness of nature, the simple, unos- 
tentatious, disinterested consecration of mind and heart to the 
promotion of the virtue and happiness and liberty of his people, 
naturally drew them into a closer attachment, a deeper and an 
almost personal co-operation in his high aspirations and aims. 

When not in the actual discharge of his official duties he spent 
his time in retirement at his private home at Fort Hill. He was 
occupied in agriculture, in which he took the deepest interest. 
Would that I had the power to portray a Southern planter's 
home! The sweet and noble associations, the pure, refining and 
elevating atmosphere of a household presided over by a Southern 
matron; the tranquil yet active occupations of a large land 
owner — full of interest and high moral responsibilities; the 
alliance between man's intellect and nature's laws of production; 
the hospitality, heartfelt, simple and generous. The Southern 
planter was far from being the self-indulgent, indolent, coarse 
and overbearing person that he has sometimes been pictured. 
He was, in general, careful, patient, provident, industrious, for- 
bearing, and yet firm and determined. These were the qualities 
which enabled him to take a race of untamed savages, with 
habits that could only inspire disgust, with no arts, no single 
tradition of civilization, and out of such a people to make the 
finest body of agricultural and domestic laborers that the world 
has ever seen; and, indeed, to elevate them in the scale of ra- 
tional existence to such a height as to cause them to be deemed 
fit for admission into the charmed circle of American freedom, 
and to be clothed with the rights and duties of American citi- 
zenship. 



65 

The Southern planter penetrated the dense forests, the tangled 
brake, the gloomy wilderness of our river swamps, where pesti- 
lence had its abode, and there, day by day and year by year, 
amidst exposure, hardship and sickness, his foresight, his pru- 
dence, his self-reliance, his adaptation of means to ends were 
called into requisition. In the communion with himself, iu the 
oj)portunities for continued stud}', and in the daily and yearly 
provision for a numerous body of dependents — for all of Avhom 
he felt himself resjoonsible, about whom his anxieties were ever 
alive, whose tasks he apportioned and whose labors he directed — 
he was educated in those faculties and personal qualities which 
enabled him to emerge from his solitude and preside in the 
County Court, or become a member of his State Legislature; to 
discharge the duties of local magistracy, or to take his place in 
the National councils. 

The solution of the enigma of the so-called slave power may 
be sought here. Its basis lay in that cool, vigoi'ous judgment 
and unerring sense applicable to the ordinary affairs and inter- 
course of men which the Southern mode of life engendered and 
fostered. The habits of industry, firmness of jrarpose, fidelity 
to dependents, self-reliance, and the sentiment of justice in all 
the various relations of life which were necessary to the man- 
agement of a well-ordered plantation, fitted men to guide legis- 
latures and command armies. 

In confirmation of what I say, I have only to point to the fact 
that it was in such communities as these that a Washington, a 
Jackson, a Taylor, a Lee, and a host of others, acquired those 
qualities which enabled them, in the position in which their 
country placed them, to add such undying lustre to the American 
name. It was in such communities that men like Jefferson, 
Madison, Monroe, Polk, Lowndes, Calhoun, Clay, Macon, Mar- 
shall, Taney and many others whom I could mention, acquired 
those characteristics wiiich their countrymen, both North and 
South, instinctively discerned waenever they were '''called upon 
to face some awful moment to which Heaven has joined great 
issues, good or bad, for human kind."" 

Another reason why this statue should be erected to his mem- 
ory is that it is due to him for his intellectual contributions to 
the age in which he lived. Apart from his career as a states- 
man in the House of Representatives, where he was conspicuous 



66 

for his'nationality in maintaining the independence of his conn- 
try among the powers of the world; apart from his seven years, 
service in a Cabinet office, where his powerful mind impressed 
itself on the organization and practical operations of the execu- 
tive department of the Government; apart from his long years 
of service as Vice-President of the United States; apart from 
that unparalleled parliamentary career in the United States Sen- 
ate, where, opposed by those giants of debate, the mighty Web- 
ster of the North, and Clay of the West, backed by other 
Senators gifted with talents of the highest order, he, single- 
handed, maintained his position in those grand orations, one of 
which the best of judges has pronounced "unsurpassed by any 
recorded in modern or ancient times, not even excepting that 
of the great Athenian, on the crown;" putting I say, out of 
view all his achievements and measures as a public man, consti- 
tuting as they do some of the brightest chapters in the history 
of this country, he has left, in his writings, considered as the 
productions of an author, a legacy which will perpetuate the 
sway of his immortal thought over the minds of men. In these 
writings he has given to the world profound studies and original 
views upon the principles of government and free institutions; 
the deepest analysis and the most systematic classification of 
those universal laws which, hidden from ordinary observation, 
operate silently on human society and influence the fate of na- 
tions in all ages of the world. 

His published speeches, although made upon the political 
measures and the national policies of the particular time, are 
philosophical expositions of the genius and structure and prin- 
ciples of the American Constitution, replete with the deepest 
wisdom and the most unerring sagacity. Each speech is a con- 
sistent chapter of a continuous discourse, a harmonious part of 
a connected system of political science, which will place their 
author among those great spirits who bless and instruct man- 
kind long after the celebrity of politicians and statesmen has 
faded from remembrance. 

But there is a third reason why South Carolina should have 
on her soil a statue to Calhoun, and that is his stainless purity 
of life, his sterling virtue and integrity of character. This, 
more than any other, was the cause of his unparalleled hold 
upon the love, reverence and trust of his people. With ample 



67 

opportunity to promote his private interests in the high trusts 
he held, he was as fastidious as Washington, and never accepted 
gifts. So simple was his life, so unostentatious and frugal in 
his habits that he was never incumbered in his public duties by 
the thought of a benefaction even from his friends. His was 
the greatness of a soul which, fired with love of virtue, conse- 
crated itself to truth and duty, and, with unfaltering confidence 
in God, was ever ready to be immolated in the cause of right 
and country. This moral excellence, this uj)rightness of motive 
and action, was the granite foundation of his character, under- 
lying and supporting the splendid superstructure of his noble and 
exalted qualities of genius, eloquence, wisdom and patriotism. 
The people of South Carolina, whatever may be their admira- 
tion of brilliant intellect and the achievements of statesman- 
ship, have never yet put their country's interest and honour under 
the leadership of any one unless they had confidence in his 
moral superiority. In erecting this statue to Calhoun they feel 
that they render and perpetuate their homage to the majesty of 
moral rectitude. 

And now, fellow citizens, I must take him away from your 
hearts, where he is enshrined in choicest affection and reverence; 
and bear him before those stern, ultimate judges — history, pos- 
terity, country and Grod. These are to take the exact measure 
of his life, his services, his character and his motives, without 
any favor or affection, and Avith the inflexible tests and scrutiny 
of justice. 

In the early history of our Republic two different powers were 
in the presence of each other — the principle of local State 
sovereignty and that of National union. Although both of 
these powers were to be found in the embryo of our political 
system, they existed m confusion and without precise legal defi- 
nition, both having claims to urge and facts to allege in support 
of their respective pretension to supremacy. The principle of 
State sovereignty was the first brought into operation, and, 
therefore, preceded the other in legal recognition and actual 
predominance. Previous to the Declaration of Independence, 
the colonies were each a distinct political community; each had 
its own separate political organization, tlie legislation of which 
extended no farther than its own territorial limits. The only 
political bond which held them in union was the sovereignty of 



68 

the British nation. When they threw that off, the States had 
no common Government. The general sovereignty over them 
as a whole disappeared and ceased to exist, at least in visible and 
legal embodiment of organized power, and passed into the sev- 
eral States, which had become each indej)endent and sovereign 
in its own right. The Constitution was framed by delegates 
elected by the Legislatures. It was the work of the sovereign 
States, as independent, separate communities. It was ratified 
by conventions of these separate States, each acting for itself. 
By this Constitution certain well-defined and specified powers 
were delegated to the Federal Grovernmeut; but it expressly de- 
clared that "the powers not herein delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are 
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. '^ 

If the constitutional history of the United States had stopj^ed 
with the adoption of the Federal Constitution by the original 
thirteen States, it would hardly be questioned that this Govern- 
ment was a Government of sovereign States with every attribute 
of State sovereignty retained in its system. But the law of 
development applies to human society as much as to any other 
created being. In all nations in which there are any stirrings 
of constitutional life there is more than one fundamental princi- 
ple or power. These several principles or elements are not all 
developed at the same time or in equal degree. Events and in- 
fluences will develop one element into ascendency; subsequent 
conditions and events may cause a different element to shoot 
forward and overcome the others. Now, although the Declara- 
tion of Independence and the Articles of Confederation and the 
Constitution of the United States were all based upon the as- 
sumption of the independence and sovereignty of the several 
States, yet in point of historical fact tiie inhabitants of the 
American colonies, both before and after independence, were, in 
many important respects, one people. These colonies, as one 
body politic, were one people in being subject to the authority 
of the British sovereign; they were one people as being subject 
in their civil and social relations to the common law of England; 
they were one people respecting their rights as Englishmen, 
which, to the honor of England, were planted by their cradles 
in the infancy of their colonial existence; they were one people 
in language, in blood, in manners, and especially in being sub- 




JOHN C. CALHOLiN 



i 



69 

jected to a common oppression and thrilled by the intrinsic glory 
of a noble cause into a unity of American j^atriotism. Although 
these facts may not be found in State papers and records of legis- 
lation, they shot their roots deep into the thought, the belief, 
the instinct of the great mass of the people, and sometimes 
found expression in public documents, for instance: "When, in 
the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people 
to dissolve," &c., &c. 

And, whilst it is true that when this national sovereignty of 
the British Government was overthrown, there was no organiza- 
tion of national power for the time over the whole people, yet 
it is also true that even in the absence of such power those 
States were never for one instant disunited: that, with respect 
to foreign relations and all matters touching their relations to 
each other, the sovereign power was ever exercised by the States 
united and never — not in a single instance — by a several State. 

After the adoption of the Constitution, the moral, social and 
material forces which have always been more powerful in mould- 
ing the institutions, in determining the destinies of nations than 
external legal forms, combined to increase the power and mag- 
nify the importance of the General Government of the Union 
at the expense of that of the particular government of the 
States. When independence was first achieved the original 
States lay stretched along the Atlantic coast, sparsely peopled, 
separated by vast wildernesses, with no means of internal com" 
munication and trade, except by stages, pack-horses and sumter- 
mules on land, and flat-boats, rafts and bateaus on the water. 
Since then the locomotive and. the steamboat not only annihilate 
distance, but, ''like enormous shuttlecocks, shoot across the 
thousand various tlireads" of disconnected sections, localities, 
interests and influences, and bind them into a web, while the 
electric telegraph transmits to every part of the country, at the 
same moment, the same intelligence, thus uniting the minds of 
a vast population in the same thought and emotion. 

But a cause more potent than any yet mentioned has operated 
to determine the character and tendency of our political system. 
I refer to the acquisition by the Federal Government of the vast 
territory embraced in the Louisiana purchase, and that ceded 
by Spain and Mexico to the United States. These territories, 
far exceeding in area that of the original thirteen States, be- 

10 



70 

longed excliisi\"ely to the Federal Government.* No separate 
State Government had the slightest jurisdiction upon one foot 
of the soil of that vast domain. The jjublic lands were sur- 
veyed by officers of the Federal Government, and titles to them 
were conveyed by the Federal Government in its character of 
private proprietor as well as of public sovereign. The popula- 
tion who settled 'these territories had no political rights save 
those imparted to them by the Federal Government . Their very 
limited powers of self-government were enjoyed under territo- 
rial constitutions framed and prescribed for them by the Fed- 
eral Congress, and when they became States it was by the per- 
mission of Copgress, which admitted them under such con- 
ditions and terms as it deemed proper under the Constitution. 
It is true that as soon as these new States were admitted they 
shared equally with the original States in the general sovereign 
powers of the whole, and the sovereignty reserved to each . But 
whilst this was true in constitutional theory, the actual histori- 
cal fact was that when the forces which had been so long agitat- 
ing the country culminated in war, the relation of the States to 
the Federal Government had become almost the reverse of what 
it was at the birth of the Republic. In 1789 the States were 
the creators of the Federal Government; in 1861 the Federal 
Government was the creator of a large majority of the States. 
In 1789 the Federal Government had derived all the powers del- 
egated to it by the Constitution from the States; in 1861 a ma- 
jority of the States derived all their powers and attributes as 
States from Congress under the Constitution. 

In 1789 the people of the United States were citizens of States 
originally sovereign and independent; in 1861 a vast majority 
of the people of the United States were citizens of States that 
were originally mere dependencies of the Federal Government, 
which was the author and giver of their political being. With 
all these forces on the side of the Union, backed by a majority 
of State Governments, with their reserved powers, with a very 
great preponderance of population, resources and wealth, it was 
a natural consequence that the unity and integrity of the United 
States as a sovereign nation should be established on the battle- 

*The great northwest territory, then a wilderness, out of which powerful States 
have been subsequently formed, was ceded by Virginia to the United States before 
the Constitution was adopted. 



71 

field; that its Government should come out of the conflict with 
a prestige and power greater perhaps than any on earth; and 
that the eleven minority States, after a resistance as heroic as 
any recorded in the annals of Greece and Rome, should succumb 
to overwhelming forces. 

It is not necessary here to go over the policy of Reconstruc- 
tion. It was the offspring of misconception and distrust of the 
Southern people. Its theory was that the Federal success in 
arms over the South was only a partial one; that the sentiments, 
passions and aims of the Southern people were still, and would 
continue to be, rebellious to the authority and hostile to the 
policy of the Nation; that the termination of the war having 
put an end to the absolute military control, it became necessary 
to substitute another organization which, though not purely 
military, would be no less effectual in its function of repression 
and force. Its unmistakable jjurpose was the reversal of every 
natural, social and political relation on which, I will not say, 
the civilization of the South, but of the world and of the whole 
Union, rested. But in process of time a large portion of the 
dominant section saw not only the odious injustice of the sys- 
tem fastened upon the South, but the danger to the whole coun- 
try which its maintenance threatened. Then followed a course 
of magnanimity on the part of the Northern people, unexamj^led 
in the annals of civil wal- and accepted by the South in a spirit 
not less magnanimous and great-hearted. The result was the 
full and equal restoration of the Southern States, with all their 
rights under the Constitution, upon the one condition that they 
would recognize, as elements of their new political life, the valid- 
ity of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments 
to the Constitution, guaranteeing and establishing the indissolu- 
bility of the American Union and the universality of American 
freedom. The disfranchisements and disqualifications imposed 
in an hour of passion and excitement upon a mistaken theory of 
public necessity, and unwisely retained from a lingering preju- 
dice and distrust, have been in the main removed, or have ceased 
to apply to the majority of the Southern population Those 
which yet remain on the statute book are hardly def nded bv 
the ptiblic sentiment of the Northern States, and must ere long 
be offered upon the altar of the free and equal citizenship of 
the Republic. 



72 

From that time we have seen those States, by their faithful 
adherence to this pledge, steadily advancing year by year, in 
their right of self-government, taking their place with larger 
numbers and wider influence in the councils of the nation, and 
doing all this with a temper, moderation and patriotism that is 
fast commanding a general belief among the mass of the North- 
ern people that the full and equal presence of the South, accord- 
ing to the measure of her population and resources in every de- 
partment of the Government, so far from being a danger to the 
national security, is a contribution to its highest and best in- 
terests. 

I have prefaced what I have to say of Mr. Calhoun with this 
brief sketch of the controversy in which he bore a part, because 
I believe if he were here to-day and could see his own South 
Carolina, the land of Rutledge, Moultrie, Laurens, Hayne, 
Lowndes, Sumter and Marion, restored, largely through the 
the efforts of her lion-hearted Hampton, to her proud position 
of dignity and equality in the Union, he would say to her that 
the great controversy being closed at the ballot-box, closed by 
the arbitrament of war, and above all, closed by the Constitu- 
tion, always deemed sacred and inviolable by her, she sacrifices 
no principle and falsifies no sentiment in accepting the verdict — 
determined, henceforth, to seek the happiness of her people, 
their greatness and glory, in the greatness and glory of the 
American Republic. 

He would have told her, if such counsel were necessary, that 
a people who, in form surrender and profess to submit, yet con- 
tinue to secretly nurse old resentments and past animosities and 
cherish delusive schemes of reaction and revenge will, sooner or 
later, degenerate into baseness and treachery and treason. He 
would say that a heroic and liberty-loving State, like South Car- 
olina, should cherish for the great Republic, of which she is jiart, 
that ardent, genuine patriotism which is the life and soul and 
light of all heroism and liberty. Ah, fellow-citizens, had he 
lived, his great talents would have been, as they bad ever been 
before, directed to save this people from the horrors of disunion 
and war. In this I am confirmed by one whom the South placed 
at the head of her great movement, Mr. Jefferson Davis. He 
says: "It was during the progress of these memorable contro- 
versies that the South lost its most trusted leader and the Senate 



73 

its greatest and purest statesman. He was taken from us like a 
summer-dried fountain, when our need was greatest, when his 
intellectual power, his administrative talent, his love of peace, 
his devotion to the Constitution, might have averted collision." 

In the brief compass of this address I cannot undertake to 
review the incidents of Mr. Calhoun^s early youth. He had 
arrived nearly at the age of manhood ere his school life began, 
but his constant contact with men, his access to books, and the 
social life to which I have already alluded, gave him opportu- 
nities which were well calculated to develop those qualities in a 
gifted and aspiring youth which would fit him for a life of use- 
fulness and honorable distinction. He had thought profoundly 
upon the nature of man and human society. He had studied 
the science of government, its origin, its forms and its adminis- 
tration. He read the best treatises on politics, ancient and 
modern, within his reach, and made himself conversant with 
the constitutions of Greece and Rome, the British system and 
the polity of modern States. When he entered Congress, there- 
fore, at the age of twenty-eight years, his mind was stored and 
fortified with principles Avhich were the guide of his political 
conduct. 

He rejected alike the dogma of the sovereignty of monarchies 
and aristocracies on the one hand, and on the other the shallow 
fiction of the social contract as the foundation of government. 
He asserted boldly that society and government both were of 
Divine ordination; that the Supreme Creator and Ruler of all 
had in His infinite wisdom assigned to man the social and polit- 
ical state as the best adapted to the development of the moral 
and intellectual faculties and capacities with which He had en- 
dowed him. The fundamental principles of government — 
please remember, fellow-citizens, that I am giving you his views, 
and not my own — he found in the wants and feelings and ten- 
dencies of man, wrought there by the hand of God, which, in 
their development, assumed the attributes and functions of for- 
mal governments. The external forms and organizations de- 
signed to prevent the tendency of government to disorder and 
injustice, called constitutions, are the contrivances of men, who 
are left to perfect by their reason and free will the government 
that the Infinite has ordained, just as He created the material 
laws of the earth, and left man to impress it with his own per- 



74 

sonality. The riglit to prescribe these constitutions and to 
coerce society into submission to them is sovereignty. That 
power in a nation which holds this supreme authority in the 
last resort, from which there is no appeal to a higher power, 
is the sovereign power of that nation. Where that supreme, 
absolute and ultimate power resides is a question which has not 
only challenged the speculations of philosophers in the closet 
and statesmen in the national councils, but has also been debated 
on bloody fields in arms. On this question Mr. Calhoun was, 
from profound conviction, always a Republican and an Ameri- 
can Democrat. He maintained that the people were the legiti- 
mate source of all political power; that governments ought to 
be created "by them and for them;" that powers conferred 
upon government are not surrendered, but delegated, and as 
such are held in trust and not absolutely, and can be 
rightfully exercised only in furtherance of the objects for which 
they are delegated; and in order to guarantee the responsibility 
of the rulers to the ruled and to secure the control of those 
electing over those elected, universal suffrage is the primary and 
indispensable foundation of Eepublican governments. 

Fellow-citizens, are these mere common-place truisms? They 
were not so in his day. At that time disparagement and dis- 
trust of Eepublican governments were prevalent. Alexander 
Hamilton, the founder of that school of politics to which Mr. 
Calhoun was opposed, and whose disciples have always opposed 
his doctrines, was not in favor of a Republican government. 

It is due to this eminent American statesman and ardent 
patriot to say that at the close of the Convention he expressed 
his anxiety that every member should sign the constitution, 
"although no man's ideas were more remote from the plan than 
his own were known to be. The question was between anarchy 
and confusion on one side, and the chance of good to be ex- 
pected from the plan on the other." He afterwards advocated 
its ratification in the Federalist, and the action of New York 
was no doubt brought about by his powerful influence. And 
yet he to the very last exj^ressed his doubts of what he called 
"the experiment." 

He did not think it could be established successfully in Amer- 
ica. In the debates of the Convention which framed the Fed- 
eral Constitution he openly avowed his opinion that the mon- 



75 

arcliy of England was the best Government in the world; that 
the aristocracy of that nation was a most noble institution and 
that her hereditary king was the only model of good executive 
government; and he expressed his doubts that anything short of 
it would do for America. As he was a classical scholar he no 
doubt derived these doubts from the history of ancient and 
modern Eepublics. Aristotle declared that the worst of all 
tyrannies was the tyranny of Democracy; Thucydides often 
dwelt upon the fact that the evils and vices of society always 
rose to the ascendant among the Athenian demos ; while Tacitus 
and Livy made frequent references to the disorganizing and 
demoralizing influences of the Eomau populace. Even Mon- 
tesquieu and Guizot and Gibbon and Hume, and those eloquent 
Liberals, Burke, Mackintosh and Macauley, have all expressed 
apprehensions as to the permanence and the blessings of pure 
Democratic governments. But Mr. Calhoun^s faith in man and 
his capacity for self-government under proper conditions never 
for an instant in his life deserted him. Nothing in the works 
of theological writers can be found stronger than his repeated 
assertion of the superintendence of Divine Providence over the 
government of man. He also firmly believed that the voice of 
a great people uttered for the benefit of the whole community 
through organs so constituted as to suppress the voice of selfish 
factions and interests, and to express the sentiment of the entire 
community was, without impiety, the voice of God. 

I know of nothing in Mr. Calhoun's career more striking than 
what occurred on the very threshold of his public service. 

Mr. Clay more than once has declared that in no Congress of 
which he had knowledge has there been assembled such a galaxy 
of eminent and able men as were in the House of Eepresenta- 
tives of that Congress which declared war against England in 
1812. Mr. Calhoun was elected to that Congress at the age of 
twenty-seven years. He had been admitted to the Bar only two 
3"ears before. Yet this unknown young man, and obscure at- 
torney from an obscure country village, a stranger to the elegant 
accomplishments and the graces of scholarship, before he had 
made a speech, took his place at the head of these distinguished 
and brilliant men, as their equal and even their superior, and 
maintained it with increasing power and ever-widening fame to 
the end. In the light of after events the cause of this extra- 



76 

ordinary circumstance could be easily discerned. In the pres- 
ence of a great impending crisis, full of solemn import to men 
of sense and virtue, whose extent the most far-sighted cannot 
fully measure, and before whose dangers the most resolute nat- 
urally quail; when the voice of faction is hushed, and rivalries 
and animosities cease; in such a crisis demanding immediate 
action, mastery and leadership go of their OAvn accord to the 
master spirit, to the man of trauscendent intellect, bravery of 
soul, promptness of decision, energy of action, all strengthened, 
sustained and vivified by an ardent and disinterested patriotism. 
Just such a momentuous crisis was upon that Congress of 
1811-'12, when Mr. Calhoun took his seat, and the qualities just 
mentioned found their embodiment in his character. 

From the day that our Government was established our rela- 
tions with foreign nations were troubled and uncertain. Soon 
after the Constitution was put into force a mighty war broke 
out between France and England, during which both belliger- 
ents disregarded the rights of the United States and their in- 
terests as an independent nation. Washington and his succes- 
sors, who were statesmen in the Revolution, anxious to secure 
our as yet untried political institutions from the hazards of war 
until they could be settled and established, patiently bore these 
wrongs, although they would have justified a resort to war. 
Under the influence of this policy, when these wrongs reached 
to the spoliation of our ships and the seizure of our citizens, 
the United States Grovernment withdrew our commerce and our 
citizens from the ocean and appealed to the justice of these 
nations to cease their outrages. Unheeding these appeals, the 
Government of England pursued a course which amounted to 
a desolating war upon American commerce. American vessels, 
laden with the product of American industry and skill, were 
seized in our own ports and confiscated, while three thousand 
American seamen were seized and imprisoned, and made to serve 
on English men-of-war. It was in the midst of the agitation 
caused by these wrongs that the Congress of 1811 met. Mr. 
Calhoun was placed second on the most important committee, 
that of Foreign Relations. He was at once its animating spirit 
and the mainspring of its action, and under his influence it soon 
submitted a report, said to have been written by him, which 
recommended immediate preparations for war with Great Britain. 



7 



h 



In the debate that followed Mr. Calhoun made a speech in its 
support, which stamped him as an orator and a statesman of the 
first rank, and made him the foremost champion of the war and 
the author and supporter of the measures for its vigorous prose- 
cution. The effect of his speech in arousing the country to a 
sense of wrong and danger, and to the vindication of our national 
honor and threatened independence, was like magic. He showed 
that the object of England was really to remand the United 
States to the condition of commercial dependency which existed 
in her colonial state. He made the people of the country see 
that the simple issue was war or submission to the loss of inde- 
pendence and nationality. The commanding power of the speech 
lay in the intrinsic force and the grandeur of truth, and its 
eloquence in the noble utterances which appeal to the moral 
sentiments of the people and address themselves to the highest 
faculties of the intellect and the noblest aspirations of the heart. 
",The question," said he, '"'is reduced to this single point : 
Which shall we do, abandon or defend our maritime rights and 
the personal liberties of our citizens in exercising them? * * * 
The gentleman from Virginia is at a loss to account for what he 
calls our hatred to England. He asks us how we can hate the 
country of Locke, of Newton, Hampden and Chatham; a coun- 
try having the same language and customs with ourselves and 
descending from a common ancestry. If we have so much to 
attach us to that country, potent, indeed, must be the cause 
which has overpowered it. * * * But the gentleman in his 
eager admiration of that country has not been sufficiently 
guarded in his argument. Has he reflected on the cause of that 
admiration ? Has he examined the reason of our high regard 
for her Chatham ? It is his ardent patriotism, the heroic cour- 
age of his mind that could not brook the least insult or injury 
offered to his country, but thought that her interest and honor 
ought to be vindicated at every hazard and expense. I hope 
that when called upon to admire we shall also be asked to imi- 
tate. I hope the gentleman does not wish a monopoly of those 
great virtues for England. * * * Our rights are vitally at- 
tacked. * * * The only alternative is war or degrada- 
tion. * * * J hoi^e the decision is made already by a 
higher authority than the voice of any man. It is not for the 

human tongue to instill the sense of independence and honor, 
n 



78 

This is the work of nature, a generous nature that disdains 
tame submission to wrongs." 

What he said was true, but it is the prerogative of genius to 
put into the materialism of words the thoughts which lie inar- 
ticulate in the consciousness of a brave people, whose heart 
leaps in spontaneous sympathy to her voice. 

It is not necessary to repeat to this audience the glorious inci- 
dents of that war, and after many vicissitudes of reverses and 
success, its victorious termination and its effect in giving to the 
United States a proud and established position of dignity, equal- 
ity and power among the nationalities of the world. 

Nor have I the time to dwell upon the measures which Mr. 
Calhoun introduced or supported during his service in the House 
of Representatives, which terminated in 1817, or of his services 
as Secretary of War under President Monroe, or as Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

Perhaps a better idea can be given of his position before the 
country during that period by restating the opinions of him ex- 
pressed by the great statesmen of that day. Mr. Dallas, who 
was in the Cabinet of Mr. Madison, as Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, said Mr. Calhoun was "the young Hercules who carried 
the war on his shoulders. '' After one of his speeches during 
this service in the House, Mr. Grosvenor, of New York, one of 
the ablest and most distinguished members of the opposition, 
between whom and Mr. Calhoun an unpleasant difference had 
arisen during the discussion of a war measure, said : •' I have 
heard the able, manly and constitutional speech of the gentleman 
from South Carolina." Here Mr. Grosvenor paused, remember- 
ing this personal difference, and then resumed : " Mr. Speaker, 
I will not be restrained ; no barrier shall exist which I shall not 
leap over for the purpose of offering to that gentleman my 
thanks for the judicious, indejDendent and national course which 
he has pursued in the House for the last year, and particularly 
upon the subject now before us. Let the honorable gentleman 
continue with the same manly independence, aloof from party 
views and local prejudices, to pursue the great interests of his 
country and fulfil the high destiny for which it is manifest he 
was born. The buzz of popular apjolause may not cheer him on 
his way, but he will inevitably arrive at a happy elevation in the 
view of his country and the world." 



79 

The great William Pinckney, of Maryland, who was also a 
member of the House, upon one occasion following Mr. Calhoun 
in debate on the same side, said of him : " The strong power 
of genius, from a higher region than that of argument, has 
thrown on the subject all the light with which it is the preroga- 
tive of genius to invest and illuminate everything." 

How he performed the duties of his position as Secretary of 
War can be also better determined in the same way. Henry 
Clay said of him : 'SSiich was the high estimate I formed of 
his transcendent talents that if, at the end of his service in the 
executive department under Mr. Monroe's administration, he 
had been called to the highest office of the Government I should 
have felt perfectly assured that under his auspices the honor and 
prosperity and the glory of our country would have been safely 
placed." 

John Quincy Adams, who was his colleague in Monroe's Cab- 
inet, thus spoke of him before his judgment was clouded by 
personal resentment : '' Calhoun thinks for himself, indepen- 
dent of all the rest, with sound judgment, quick discrimination 
and keen observation. He supports his opinion, too, with pow- 
erful eloquence. * * * Mr. Calhoun is a man of fair and 
candid mind, of honorable principles, of clear and quick under- 
standing, of cool self-possession, of enlarged philosophical views 
and of ardent patriotism. He is above all sectional and factious 
prejudices more than any other statesman of the Union with 
whom I have ever, acted." (J. Q. Adams's Diary.) 

Judge Story said of him in a letter to a friend : " I have great 
admiration for Mr. Calhoun, and think few men have more en- 
larged and liberal views of the nation." Mr. Webster at the 
same time wrote to his brother : "I hope all New England will 
support Mr. Calhoun for the Vice-Presidency. He is a true man 
and will do good to the country in that situation." He was 
elected to the Vice-Presidency, and New England, with the sin- 
gle exception of Connecticut, and one vote from New Hamp. 
shire, united in the overwhelming majority that carried him to 
the Vice-Presidential chair. 

A brilliant and able Carolina statesman, on whose shoulders Mr. 
Calhoun's mantle had worthily fallen, and would have been 
worthily borne but for the cutting short of his career by death, 
said that the war of 1812 was the turning-point in the history 



80 

of the world, gi"viDg, as it did to the United States, indepen- 
dence abroad as the Eevolution gave them independence at 
home ; and that Calhoun's course in that war would never fail 
of the admiration and applause of future times. 

But Mr. Calhoun's career in the House of Eepresentatives did 
more than give him renown as a statesman preeminent for his 
nationality. The experience of its harsh trials, its obstacles, re- 
verses, disappointments, followed by despondency subsiding into 
apathy,and from that into dissensions ; the ruined trade and de- 
preciated currency and paralyzed industries which it caused ; the 
numerous dangers of utter discomfiture, from which the escapes 
seemed, and perhaps really were, hair-breadth^ made deep and 
lasting Impressions on his mind, the influence of which may be 
seen in his sentiments and feeling and action, through the whole 
course of his subsequent career as a statesman. For special 
reasons hereafter to be disclosed, I ask your attention to one of 
the principles which that war fixed in his mind and interfused 
with the very elements of his soul. I will state it in his own 
words: "The chief object for which the Constitution was 
formed was to give the General Government power, security and 
respectability abroad. In our relations with foreign countries, 
where strength of government and national security are most 
required, the powers of our Government are undivided. In 
those exterior relations — abroad — this Go\ernment is the sole 
and exclusive representative of the united majesty, sovereignty 
and power of the States constituting this great and glorious 
Union. To the rest of the world we are one. Neither State nor 
State Government is known beyond our borders. '^ 

In that great work upon the Constitution of the United States, 
some of the pages of which were wet with ink but a short time 
before he expired, he repeats this principle. Speaking of the 
two great divisions of Federal power, he says : " One of them 
embraces all the powers pertaining to the relations of the United 
States with the rest of the world. * * * Pi-om the De- 
claration of Independence to the present time, in all the changes 
through which we have passed, the Union has had exclusive 
charge of this division of powers." Again, speaking of the 
United States being unknown to the rest of the world, except 
in their united character, he says ; "Abroad, to the rest of the 



81 

world, they are but one. It is only at home, in their interior 
relations, that they are many." 

There was another principle which formed one of the founda- 
tion stones of his political creed. It is that when a nation is in 
a state of war, or preparing for wai-, whenever it undertakes to 
protect the rights of its people, or to preserve their indepen- 
dence and honor from violations, injustice and oppression, or 
invasion of another nation, that Government has a legitimate 
right to the full command of all the resources of the commu- 
nity. He lays down this principle in his Disquisition on Gov- 
ernment in the following terse words: ''When this," {i. e., 
national security,) "is at stake, every other consideration must 
yield to it. Self-preservation is the supreme law, as well with 
communities as with individuals ; and hence the danger of with- 
holding from Government the full command of the resources of 
the entire State." This principle he insists upon, that Govern- 
ment, in order to fulfil the end of protecting its citizens from 
dangers from without and the devastations of war, must have 
and must exercise powers sufficient to call forth the entire re- 
sources of the community, and be prepared at all times to com- 
mand them promptly in every emergency that may arise." 

I have called attention to these principles not only on account 
of their vital importance, but for another reason. Mr. Cal- 
houn has been charged with gross inconsistency of conduct at 
this time with the course pursued by him at a later epoch in his 
life upon the subject of a protective tariff, internal improve- 
ments and a national bank. These measures may be said to 
have virtually originated in the war, for the conditions and dis- 
orders of war continue long in a body, politic after terms of peace 
are entered into and proclaimed. The questions which then agi- 
tated men's minds and upon which political jDarties arranged 
themselves in support and opposition, were not questions of 
internal policy; they related exclusively to the National security, 
growing out of the state of our external relations. Mr. Calhoun 
advocated in 1816 the protection of manufactures "as a means 
of National defence and protection against dangers from 
abroad," with which we were at that time imminently threat- 
ened. For the same reason he advocated a bank and the adop- 
tion of an improved system of internal communication; and the 
constitutional authority to adopt such measures he did not look 



82 

for in tlio enumerated powers specifically delegated to Congress, 
which operated directly upon the individual citizens of the United 
States, but he felt that it lay in that complete plenary power 
which pertained to the Government as the sole and exclusive 
representative of the undivided sovoreingty of the Republic in 
its relations with other nations. That this was his view will be 
clearly seen by reading the speeches delivered in 1816 in sup- 
port of these measures. 

Irksome as it must be to listen to the reading of documents, 
I must ask you to give me your attention whilst I read the fol- 
lowing «-.xtrac'ts from his speech of Janiuiry 31, 181G, toshow 
that he advocated protection to manufactures as a means of 
national defense and purely as a temporary measure. In that 
speech he says: "We are now called on to determine what 
amount of revenue is necessary for this country in time of peace. 
* * * The principal expense of the Government grows out of 
measures necessary for its defense; and in order to decide what 
these measures ought to be, it will be ])roper to inquire what ought 
to be our policy towards other nations? And what will probably be 
theirs towards us ?'' After discussing the tirst question he pro- 
ceeds to the next, "What will })robably be the policy of other 
nations ?" lie then says: "With both these nations (Great 
Britain and Spain) we have many and important points of col- 
lision. * * * With both there is a possibility sooner or later of 
our being engaged in war." Then adverting to our relations 
with England he says: "But what will be the probable course of 
events respecting future relations between the two countries ? 
England is the most formidable power in the world; she has the 
most numerous army and navy at her command. Will Great 
Britain permit us to go on in an uninterrupted march to the 
height of national greatness and prosperity? * * * I will speak 
what I believe to be true; you will have to encounter British jeal- 
ousy and hostility in every shape — not immediately mani- 
fested by open force or violence, perhaps, but by indirect attempts 
to check your growth and prosperity. * * * Let us now con- 
sider the measures of preparation wliicli sound policy dictates/' 
After speaking of England's power to do us injury both upon 
the coast and from Canada as a jioint of attack, and our means 
of defence, he says: "Thus circumstanced on both sides, we 
ought to omit no preparation fairly within the compass of our 



83 

means. Next, as the species of preparation, a question which 
opens subjects of great extent and importance. The navy most 
certainly, in any point of view, occupies the first place." After 
the most admirable argument in favor of the navy as the most 
powerful agency for our foreign defences, the army, &c., he says: 
"Now let us consider the proper encouragement to be afforded 
to the industries of the country. In regard to the question how 
far manufacturers ought to be fostered, it is the duty of this 
country, as a means of defence, to encourage its domestic indus- 
try, more especially that part of it which provides the necessary 
materials for clothing and defence. Let us look at the nature of 
the war most likely to occur. England is in possession of the 
ocean. No man, however sanguine, can believe that we can 
soon deprive her of her maritime predominence. That control 
deprives us of the means of maintaining, cheaply clad, our army 
and navy, * * * laying the claims of manufacturers entirely 
out of view, on general principles, without regard to their inter- 
ests, a certain encouragement should be tendered at least to our 
woolen and cotton manufactures. The failure of the wealth and 
resources of the nation necessarily involved the ruin of its 
finances and it currency. It is admitted by the most strenuous 
advocates on the other side that no country ought to be depend- 
ent on another for its means of defence; that, at least, our 
musket and bayonet, our cannon and ball ought to be of domestic 
manufacture. But, what, he asked, is more necessary to the 
defence of a country than its currency and finance ? Circum- 
stanced as our country is, can these stand the shock of war? 
Behold the effect of the late war on them I When our manufac- 
tures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon will under 
the fostering care of the Government, we will no longer ex- 
perience these evils.'' 

To this distressing state of things there were two remedies, 
and only two: one in our power immediately, the other requiring 
much time and exertion, but both constituting, in his opinion, 
the essential policy of this country — he meant the navy and 
domestic manufactures. By the former we could open the way 
to our markets; by the latter we bring them from beyond the 
ocean and naturalize them. Had we the means of attaining an 
immediate naval ascendency, he acknowledged that the policy 
recommended by this bill would be very questionable; but as 



84 

that is not the fact, as it is a period remote with any exertion, 
and will be probably more so from that relaxation of exertion so 
natural in peace, when necessity is not felt, it becomes the duty 
of this House to resort to a considerable extent, at least as far 
as is proposed, to the only remaining remedy. 

Pardon the digression, but I desire here to state that through 
all these speeches there breathed the strongest sentiments of de- 
votion to the Union. In the speech from which I have already 
quoted he said that, in his opinion, the liberty and the union of 
this country were inseparably united; that, as the destruction of 
the latter would certainly involve the former, so its maintenance 
will, with equal certainty, preserve it. He did not speak lightly. 
He had often and long revolved it in his mind, and he had crit- 
ically examined into the causes that destroyed the liberty of 
other States. There are none that apply to us, or apply with a 
force to alarm. The basis of our Eepnblic is too broad and its 
structure too strong to be shaken by them. Its extension and 
organization will be found to afford effectual security against 
their operation; but let it be deeply impressed on the heart of 
this House and country that, Avhile they guarded against the old, 
they exposed us to a new and terrible danger — Disunion. This 
single word comprehended almost the sum of our political dan- 
gers, and against it we ought to be perpetually guarded. 

The very last speech that he delivered in the House of Repre- 
sentatives was like that which at the end of his life he delivered 
in the United States Senate. It was a plea for the Union. 

Sixteen years elapsed between the delivery of this speech and 
his reappearance in the national councils as a Senator of the 
United States. Those years were crowded with important events 
and changes. At the expiration of them the United States had 
grown to be a great and powerful Republic, whose people laughed 
to scorn the thought of danger from any power on earth. The 
moderate protective tariff and other measures which he had ad- 
vocated as a means of defence against foreign aggressions, had 
grown to colossal systems, drawing wealth and power from Fed- 
eral taxation, dominating and destroying the agricultural inter- 
ests of the country. It was during this period that Mr. John 
Quincy Adams was elected President of the United States. The 
manner of his election by the House of Representatives over 
Gen. Jackson, who had received the largest number of electoral 



85 

votes, the bold centralizing doctrines enunciated in his inaugu- 
ral and the measures which he urged excited opposition among 
Republicans throughout the country, in which Mr. Calhoun 
united. The venerable Thomas Jefferson, then eighty-three 
years of age, and living in strict retirement, whose mind, how- 
ever, looked from the brink of the grave keenly into the future, 
gave forth the following prophetic warnings : 

"I see as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid 
strides with which the Federal branch of our Government is 
advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to 
the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign 
and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, if legiti- 
mate, leave no limits to their power. Take together the decis- 
ions of the Federal Court, the doctrines of the President, and 
the misconstructions of the constitutional compact acted on by 
the Legislature of the Federal branch, and it is but too evident 
that the three ruling branches of that department are in com- 
bination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the 
powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all func- 
tions foreign and domestic. Under the power to regulate com- 
merce, they assume indefinitely that over agriculture and man- 
ufactures, and call it regulation to take the earnings of one of 
these branches of industry, and that, too, the most depressed, 
and put them into the pockets of the other, the most flourish- 
ing of all. * * * And what is our resource for the pre- 
servation of the Constitution ? Eeason and argument ? You 
might as well reason with the marble columns encircling them." 

It is not my purpose to discuss here the question of a protec- 
tive tariff. I desire to efface myself on this occasion. My only 
aspiration is to present to you the moral and intellectual image 
of him whose outer form and lineaments are presented in the 
admirable statue which we this day unveil. 

In one of his great speeches he stated that the station of Vice- 
President, from its leisure, had given him the opportunity to 
study the genius of the protective system as a measure of per- 
manent domestic policy; that he saw its blasting effects on one 
section, its corrupting effects on the other, and these effects in- 
creasing until the burden became intolerable under the tariff of 
1828, which was the crowning act of the administration of Mr. 
Adams. He saw that under its operation " desolation was 

12 



86 

spreading over the entire staple region; its commercial cities 
were deserted; Charleston parted with her last ship and grass 
grew in her once busy streets." 

He believed that the Constitution was violated in using a 
power granted to raise revenue as the instrument of rearing up 
the industry of one section of the country on the ruins of 
another; that it was, in a word, " a violation of the Constitu- 
tion by perversion, the most dangerous of all, because the most 
insidious and difficult to counteract." 

When convinced that there was no hope for relief from Con- 
gress through the administration of Gen. Jackson, he advised a 
remedy which he believed to be within the limits of the Consti- 
tution, conducive to the preservation of the Union and yet fully 
adequate to protect the States and the people from the abuse 
and encroachments of Federal power. That remedy was State 
intervention or nullification. The State of South Carolina, in 
a convention duly and legally convoked in November, 1832, 
passed an ordinance declaring the tariff of 1832 and 1828 to be 
unconstitutional, null and void within her limits, and of no 
binding effect upon her officers and citizens. This was followed 
by a proclamation from President Jackson declaring the ordi- 
nance unconstitutional, intended to dissolve the Union, and for- 
bidding any obedience to it upon the pains and penalties of 
treason. In defense of the action of his State, and in oppo- 
sition to the doctrines of the proclamation and the legislation in 
support of it Mr. Calhoun put forth those profound expositions 
of political principles which, as Mr. Webster afterwards said, 
''will descend to posterity under the sanction of a great name." 

It is simply impossible to give an abstract in the most con- 
densed form of these principles. 

The leading idea of those expositions is that the American 
Union is a Democratic Federal Republic — a political system 
compounded of the separate Governments of the several States 
and of one common Government of all the States, called 
the Government of the United States. Each was created 
by written constitution, those of the particular States by 
the people of each acting separately, and that of the United 
States by tlie peop'e of ea< h in its sovereign capacity, but 
acting jointly. The entire powers of government are divided 
between the two — those lodged in the General (jovei-nment be- 



87 

ing delegated by specific and enumerated grants in the Consti- 
tution; and all others not delegated being reserved to the States 
respectively, or to the people. The powers of each are sover- 
eign, and neither derives its powers from the other. In their 
respective spheres neither is subordinate to the other, but co- 
ordinate, and, being co-ordinate, each has the right of protect- 
ing its own powers from the encroachments of the other, the 
two combined forming one entire and perfect Government. The 
line of demarcation between the delegated powers to the Fed- 
eral Government and the powers reserved to the States is plain, 
inasmuch as all the powers delegated to the General Government 
are expressly laid down, and those not delegated are reserved to 
the States unless specially prohibited. 

The greater part of the powers delegated to the General Gov- 
ernment relate directly or indirectly to two great divisions of 
authority; the one pertaining to the foreign relations of the 
country, the other of an internal character, and pertaining to 
the exterior relations of the States, the purposes for which the 
Constitution was formed being power, security and respectability 
without, and peace, tranquility and harmony within. 

After a full exposition of these propositions, he employs the 
following strong and vigorous language : 

'•' Taking all the parts together, the people of twenty-four 
independent and sovereign States, confederated by a solemn 
constitutional compact into one great federal community with a 
system of government, in all of which powers, are separated into 
the great primary divisions of the Constitution-making and the 
law-making powers, those of the latter class being divided between 
the common and Joint government of all the States, and the sep- 
arate and local governments of each State, respectively ; and 
finally the powers of both, distributed among three separate and 
independent departments, legislative, executive and judicial, pre- 
sents in the whole a political system as remarkable for its grand- 
eur as it is for its novelty and refinement of organization. For the 
structure of such a system, so wise, just and beneficent, we are far 
more indebted to a superintending Providence that so disposed 
events as to lead as if by invisible hand to its formation than to 
those who erected it. Intelligent, experienced and patriotic as they 
were, they were but builders under His superintending direction. 
To preserve this sacred distribution as originally settled, by coerc- 



ingeach to move in its prescribed orbit, is the great and diflScult 
problem on the solution of which the duration of our Constitu- 
tion, of our Union, and, in all probability, our liberty depends." 

He next addressed himself to the great question, ''what pro- 
vision does the Constitution of the United States or the system 
itself furnish to preserve this and the other division of powers ?" 
He then proceeds to show that from the relations which subsist 
between co-ordinate Governments, and from a law universally 
applicable to a division of power, whether between Governments 
or departments of Governments, a mutual negative on the part 
of each is necessary to protect each from the other ; and that in 
a case of conflict as to the limits of their respective authority 
neither has the right to impose by force its decision against the 
other, but must appeal to a power paramount to either, whose 
decision is final and binding on both. That paramount power 
in our system is the convention of States, the most august and 
imposing embodiment of political authority known to the Amer- 
ican system of Government. And this is the Doctrine of Nul- 
lification. 

As a result of the events, which in an earlier part of these 
remarks I have discussed, the right of Nullification, even in the 
minds of those who once asserted that right, no longer has a 
place in the apparatus of our political system. No one now has 
the slightest dream of any resort to State interposition as a 
remedy for political grievances. Nor would it be fair to state 
the arguments adduced by him in support of Nullification with- 
out presenting those advanced in opposition to the doctrine. 

But the sincerity of his patriotism in this matter should, in 
justice to his name and fame, be cleared of the aspersions of 
those who have reported him as a conspirator, impelled by am- 
bition to arouse sectional animosities and passions with a view 
to tearing the Union asunder. And it is with a view to this 
alone that I shall further refer to his course on this question. 

In reply to this charge I cannot resist quoting his own words: 

" I am not ignorant that those opposed to the doctrine have 
always, now and formerly, regarded it as anarchical and revolu- 
tionary. Could I believe such, in fact, to be its tendency, to 
me it would be no recommendation. I yield to none, I trust, in 
a deep and sincere attachment to our political institutions and 
the union of the States. I never expressed an opposite senti- 



89 

ment, but, on the contrary, I have ever considered them the 
great instruments of preserving our liberty and promoting 
the happiness of ourselves and our posterity. And, next to 
this, I have ever held them most dear. ]Si'early half of my life 
has been passed in the service of the Union, and whatever pub- 
lic reputation I have acquired is indissolubly identified with it. 
To be too national has, indeed, been considered by many, even 
of my friends, my greatest political fault. With these strong 
feelings of attachment I have examined with the utmost care 
the bearing of the doctrine in question; and so far from being 
anarchical or revolutionary, I solemnly believe it to be the only 
solid foundation of our system, and of the Union itself; and 
that the opposite doctrine, which denies to the States the right 
of i^rotecting their reserved powers, and which would vest in 
the Government (it matters not through what deisartment) the 
right of determining exclusively and finally the powers delegated 
to it, is incompatible with the sovereignty of the States, if the 
Constitution itself be considered as the basis of the Federal 
Union. '^ 

To the objection that the right of a State to interpose and 
arrest an Act of Congress because of its alleged unconstitution- 
ality, is inconsistent with the necessary authority of the Grov- 
ernment and must lead to feebleness, anarchy and final dis- 
union, he says that this power of nullification would, if un- 
checked, like all unchecked power, tend to abuse and disaster. 
" But it is not unchecked," said he. " As high as this right of 
interposition on the part of a State may be regarded in relation 
to the General Government, the constitutional compact provides 
a remedy against this abuse. There is a higher power placed 
above all — by the consent of all — the creating and preserving 
power of the system, to be exercised by three-fourths of the 
States, and which, under the character of the amending power, 
can modify the whole system at pleasure, and to the acts of 
which none can object. Admit then, the power in question to 
belong to the States — and admit its liability to abuse — and what 
are the utmost consequences, but to create a presumption against 
the constitutionality of the jDower exercised by the General Gov- 
ernment, which, if it be well founded, must compel them to 
abandon it ? * * * If, on an appeal for this purpose, 
the decision be favorable to the General Government, a disputed 



90 

power will be converted into an expressly granted power ; but, 
on the other hand, if it be adverse, the refusal to grant will be 
tantamount to an inhibition of its exercise ; and thus, in eithei" 
case, the controversy will be determined. The utmost extent, 
then, of the power is, that a State, acting in its sovereign capa- 
city as one of the parties to the constitutional compact, may 
compel the government, created by that compact, to submit a 
question touching its infraction, to the parties who created it. 
This amending power by a convention of the States is, when 
properly understood, the vis medicatrix of the system — its great 
repairing, healing and conservative power — intended to remedy 
its disorders, in whatever cause or causes originating ; whether 
in the original defects or errors of the Constitution itself, or 
the operation and change of circumstances. * * * (y^, in 
case of a disputed power, whether it be between tiie Federal Gov- 
ernment and one of its co-ordinates, or between the former and 
an interposing State, by declaring, authoritatively, what is the 
Constitution. * * * It is thus that our Constitution, by 
authorizing amendments, and by prescribing the authority and 
mode of making them, has, by a simple contrivance, with its 
characteristic wisdom, provided a power which, in the last resort, 
supersedes effectually the necessity, and even the pretext, for 
force, 

'' That such a remedy is provided is proof of the profound 
wisdom of the great men who formed our Constitution, and en- 
titles them to the lasting gratitude of the country, but it will be 
in vain that their wisdom devised a remedy so admirable, a sub- 
stitute so infinitely superior to the old and irrational mode of 
terminating such controversies as are of too high a nature to be 
adjusted by the force of reason, or through the ordinary tribu- 
nals, if their descendants be so blind as not to perceive its effi- 
cacy, or so intently bent upon schemes of ambition and avarice 
as to prefer to this constitutional, peaceful and safe remedy, the 
wanton, hazardous and immoral arbitrament of force. ^' 

"There is, indeed, one view, and one only of the contest, in 
which force could be employed ; but that view, as between the 
parties, would supersede the Constitution itself — that nullifica- 
tion is secession — and would, consequently, placi the State, as 
to the others, in the relation of a foreign State. * * * 
Standing thus towards one another, force might, indeed, be 



91 

employed against a State, but it must be a belligerent force, pre- 
ceded by a declaration of war and carried on with all its formal- 
ities. Such would be the certain effect of secession ; and, if nul- 
lification be secession, such, too, must be its effect, which pre- 
sents the highly important question, are they, in fact, the same ? 
On the decision of which depends the question whether nullifi- 
cation be a peaceable and Constitutional remedy that may be 
exercised without terminating the federal relations of the State 
or not. 

"I am aware that there is a considerable and respectable por- 
tion of our State, with a very large portion of the Union, con- 
stituting, in fact, a great majority, who are of the opinion that 
they are the same thing, differing only in name, and who, under 
that impression, denounce it as the most dangerous of all doc- 
trines ; and yet, so far from being the same, they are, unless, 
indeed, I am greatly deceived, not only perfectly distinguisha- 
ble, but totally dissimilar in their nature, their object and effect ; 
and that, so far from deserving the denunciation, so properly 
belonging to the act with which it is confounded, it is, in truth, 
the highest and most precious of all the rights of the States, 
and essential to preserve that very Union, for the supposed effect 
of destroying which it is so bitterly anathematized. They are 
wholly dissimilar in their nature. Secession is the withdrawal 
from the Union, * * * a throwing off of the authority of 
the Union itself, a separation from partners, and as far as it de- 
pends on the member withdrawing, a dissolution of the partner- 
ship. It presupposes an association or union of several States 
or individuals for a common object. * * * Nullification, on 
the contrary, presupposes the relation of principal and agent ; 
the one granting a power to be executed, the other, ajopointed 
by him with authority to execute it, and is simply a declaration 
on the part of the principal, made in due form, that an act of 
the agent transcending his power is null and void. * * * 
The difference in their object is no less striking than in their 
nature. The object of secession is to free the withdrawing 
member from the obligation of the association or union, &c. Its 
direct and immediate object, as it concerns the withdrawing 
member, is the dissolution of the association or union, as far as 
it is concerned. On the contrary, the object of e unification is 
to confine the agent within the limits of his powers, by arrest- 



92 

ing his acts transcending them, not with a view of destroying 
the delegated or trust power, bat to preserve it by comj)elling 
the agent to fulfill the object for which agency or trust was 
created ; and is applicable only to cases where the trust or dele- 
gated powers are transcended on the part of the agent. 

"It remains now to show that their effect is as dissimilar as 
their nature or object. 

'' Nullification leaves the members of the association or union 
in the condition it found them — subject to all its burdens, and 
entitled to all its advantages, comprehending the member nulli- 
fying as well as the others — its object being not to destroy but 
to preserve, as has been stated. * * * Secession, on the con- ' 
trary, destroys, as far as the withdrawing member is concerned, 
the association or union. * * * Such are clearly the differ- 
ences between them ; diffei-ences so marked that, instead of be- 
ing identical, as supposed, they form a contrast in all the aspects 
in which they can be regarded." 

Whatever may be the objections to this doctrine, it must be 
admitted that it had not in it an element of disunion. It might 
have proved cumbrous and obstructive in its operations of the 
Grovernment ; it might have impaired its promptness and vigor 
and energy of action, and probably would ; but had it been 
recognized and acted upon by the Federal Grovernment it would 
have ever prevented a resort to secession on the one hand, or a 
resort to force on the other. But the right was not recognized; 
it was denied and inflexibly opposed by the General Government, 
which assumed to impose its own construction of the Constitu- 
tion, against that of the States, by force. 

Just at this time Mr. Calhoun resigned the office of Vice- 
President, and took his seat in the Senate in place of Gen. 
Robert Y. Hayne, who had been chosen Governor of the State. 
A few days after he took his seat, President Jackson sent a mes- 
sage to Congress, transmitting the ordinance of nullification with 
his own proclamation, and recommending the passage of meas- 
ures which would enable him to compel, by the use of military 
force, the obedience and submission of the States. 

It was upon the occasion of this message and the force bill, 
which became a law during that session, that the great debate 
took place between Mr, Webster and Mr. Calhoun, memorable 
for the ability and eloquence displayed, the eminent character of 



93 

the two great champions of the hostile theories, and the mag- 
nitude of the questions involved. Up to the time that Mr. Cal- 
houn took his stand for what he deemed was the cause of the 
Constitution and the Union, as well as the liberty and the inter- 
est of the people of his own State, national honors and distinc- 
tions and popular applause seemed to have sought him out and' 
crowded his path through public life. He had up to that mo- 
ment been regarded as the most renowned and shining character 
among living American statesmen, and next to Jackson, the 
most popular. He was but one step from the Presidency and 
was regarded as the heir-apparent of President Jackson, who, 
it was understood, would serve but one term. 

To my mind there is nothing connected with Mr. Calhoun's 
life so fraught with touching pathos, so characteristic of the 
grand soul of the man, as the isolation of his position when he 
took his place in the United States Senate. He saw all the 
popularity which marked the early part of his career receding 
from him. He saw a majority of all his old political associates 
and friends in the Senate now in hostile array against him, and 
his old political enemies in perfect unanimity allied with them. 
Not one sister State from any part of the Union stood by South 
Carolina in this final conflict. Both Houses of Congress, with 
the President of the United States, and that President Andrew 
Jackson, combined together in the adoption of measures to 
force his State into submission to the law which she had nulli- 
fied. Never a contest, to all seeming was so unequal, so hope- 
less. But he quailed not ; strong in his own conviction of the 
justice of his cause ; self-poised in the counsels of his own mind, 
doing nothing rashly, and yet nothing timidly or doubtfully ; 
ready to immolate himself for the right which his State had en- 
trusted to his defence, this noble, brave man, on whose brow 
God had set the seal of truth : whose eye beamed bright with 
the devotion that fired his soul — courage, manliness, sincerity, 
truth in every tone and look — greatness in every lineament of 
his countenance — stood alone and prevailed. Yes, prevailed ! 
For the controversy, when closed, was closed by the compromise 
act which repealed the law that his State had nullified. The 
very Congress which passed the force bill to coerce South Caro- 
lina into submission to the tariff of 1828 and 1832, at the same 
session repealed those two laws, and Andrew Jackson, the man 

13 



94 

of iron will and pitiless purpose, in the face of his proclamation, 
signed the act that swept from the statute-book the enactment 
which South Carolina in her asserted sovereignty had declared 
unconstitutional, null and void, and inoperative in her limits. 

Any account of those stormy times Avould be incomplete which 
left out the majestic figure of Henry Clay, the matchless orator, 
the noble patriot, whose heart was the sanctuary of all noble 
impulses and generous aspirations, the genius of conciliation 
and harmony, who introduced his celebrated compromise bill 
which averted the storm and substituted peace for intestine 
strife. Immortal honor to the name of Henry Clay ! 

And here is presented a spectacle which cannot fail to excite 
the pride and admiration of all true Americans. Henry Clay, 
the author of the American system, of which the protective 
policy was the most cherished principle ; John C. Calhoun, the 
representatative and champion of the reserved rights of the 
States and their sovereignty ; Andrew Jackson, the stern, inflex- 
ible enforcer of the supreme power and paramount authority of 
the nation ; each bursting the trammels of party, casting aside 
sectional animosity, disregarding pride of opinion and personal 
hostilities ; each making concessions and all giving their united 
tribute of intellect and patriotism to the good of their common 
country. 

By this compromise, South Carolina, although she gained the 
repeal of the law she had nullified, and the prostration of the 
protective system, made important concessions. Mr. Clay 
(though he sacrificed the protective system) by his statesmanship 
secured the wise provision that the protective imposts should be 
gradually reduced, covering a term of ten years, to a revenue 
standard. To this feature Mr. Calhoun assented fully, as it had 
always been his policy to adopt a gradual and tentative reduction 
of protective duties, and thus to secure safety to all interests 
and permanent establishment of a just and fair revenue system. 
The force bill remained on the statute-book unrepealed, which 
asserts the supreme authority of the Union over a nullifying 
State. 

This settlement must give rise to the most noble reflections. 
The reader of our history is apt to be saddened by the thought 
that the eloquence and wisdom and services of our greatest 
statesmen are exhibited, not in united efforts and harmonious 



95 

co-operation, but in conflict among themselves, and victories of 
one party over another. But when a supreme moment comes 
the fact is revealed that what seems to be fierce combat among 
themselves is but the ardent strivings of each for the honor, 
perpetuity, and glory of a common country. 

I find that I have already transcended the limits I have pre- 
scribed to myself, and have nut the time to even sketch his 
measures and speeches during the remainder of his public life, 
all of which (except one year) was given to the public service. 

After the adjustment of the tariff question, or what was 
agreed to be its final settlement, he at once devoted himself to 
those great issues and those great political reforms in which 
every section of the country was alike interested. Among these 
was, first, the removal of the deposits from the National Bank 
of the United States and their transfer to the State banks, by 
order of the President, and also his course on the protest of the 
Senate against that act. On these occasions the speeches of Mr. 
Calhoun were able and fearless exposures of what he deemed the 
arbitrary abuse involved in that act and the subsequent out- 
rageous invasion on the part of the Executive upon the con- 
stitutional rights and prerogatives of the two Houses of Con- 
gress. Whilst he occupied upon these subjects common ground 
"with Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster in opposition to Gen. Jackson's 
administration, he made it very clear that upon the question of 
the national bank, the subject of currency and other measures 
of national policy, his differences with those gentlemen and the 
party they represented were marked and radical. From 1833 to 
1843 he delivered a series of speeches upon the financial and 
economical problems of that period, which, in their thorough 
elucidation of the causes which had produced the evils of a dis- 
ordered currency, prostitution of credit and general financial 
embarrassment, and in their wise forecast in indicating the true 
remedy, were as able us any he ever delivered, and, indeed, were 
pronounced by Senators eminent for talents and long experience 
to be the ablest they had ever heard in the United States Senate. 

On the 5th of February, 1835, he made a report on the extent 
of Government patronage which startled the country by its reve- 
lations of the enormous extent to which the abuses of the sys- 
tem had grown, and the degenerating influences it was exercis- 
ing alike upon the Government and the character of the people. 



96 

Animated and acrimonious debates arose in the Senate upon the 
facts stated in the report. In maintenance of the positions as- 
sumed therein, ^Mr. Calhoun made a speech which is perhaps as 
applicable to the present time as it was to those in which it 
was delivered. After showing how alarmingly the system had 
grown he proceeded to demonstrate the causes which produced 
it, and which gave to it its growth and its dangerous influences. 
At the head of these causes he placed '^•'the practice so greatly 
extended, if not for the first time introduced, of removing from 
office persons well qualified and who had faithfully performed 
their duty, in order to fill the places Avith those who were recom- 
mended on the ground that they belonged to the party in power." 
In speaking of the extent of its growth he stated that Washing- 
ton in his eight years of service had made but nine removals ; 
Madison but five, Monroe but ten, and that, he whilst Secretary 
of War for more than seven years, removed but two, and that 
for cause. 

He says : " So loug as offices were considered as public trusts, 
to be conferred on the honest, the faithful and capable, for the 
common good, and not for the benefit or gain of the incumbent 
or his party ; and so long as it was the practice of the Govern- 
ment to continue in office those who faithfully performed their 
duties, its patronage, in point of fact, was limited to the mere 
power of nominating to accidental vacancies or to newly created 
offices, and could, of course, exercise but a moderate influence 
either over the body of the community, or of the officeholders 
themselves ; and when the practice was reserved — when offices, 
instead of being considered as public trusts, to be conferred on 
the deserving, were regarded as the spoils of victory, to be be- 
stowed as remirds for partisan services without respect to merit ; 
when it came to be understood that all who held office, held by 
the tenure of partisan zeal and party service it is easy to see that 
the certain, direct and inevitable tendency of such a state of 
things is to convert the entire body of those in office into cor- 
rupt and supple instruments of power, and to raise up a host of 
hungry, greedy and subservient partisans, ready for any service, 
however base and corrupt. Were a premium oifered for the best 
means of extending to the utmost the power of patronage ; to 
destroy love of country; to encourage vice and dissourage virtue; 
and, in a word, to prepare for the subversion of liberty and the 



I 



97 

establishment of despotism ; no scheme more perfect could be 
devised ; and such must be the tendency of the practice, with 
whatever intention adopted, or to whatever extent pursued." 

He then called attention to the pledges of the party support- 
ing the present Administration to put a stop to this enormous 
abuse, and he asked : "What justification had been offered for 
so gross a violation of their pledges'?" To the speech of Mr. 
Benton in defence of the Administration he made the following 
indignant reply : "No Justification is even attempted — the de- 
linquency is acknowledged, and the only effort which the Sena- 
tor from Missouri has made to defend his own conduct and that 
of the Administration in adopting the practice which he then 
denounced is on the principle of retaliation. He says that he 
has been fourteen years a member of the Senate, and that during 
the first seven no friend of his had received the favor of the 
Government ; and contends that it became necessary to dismiss 
those in office to make room for others who had been for so long 
a time beyond the circle of Executive favor." "What," Mr. 
Calhoun asked, " is the principle, when correctly understood, 
on which this defence rests ? It assumes that retaliation is a 
principle in its nature so sacred that it justifies the breach of 
plighted faith and the subversion of principles, the observance 
of which had been declared to be essential to the liberty of the 
country. The avowal of such a principle may be justified at 
this time by interested partisans ; but a more impartial tribunal 
will regard it in a far different light, and pronounce that sen- 
tence which violated faith and broken pledges deserve. * * * 
I consider it,'* said Mr. Calhoun, "as an evidence of that deep 
degeneracy which precedes the downfall of a Republic, when 
those elevated to power forget the promises on which they were 
elevated ; the certain effect of which is to make an impression 
on the public mind that all is juggling and trickery in politics, 
and to create an indifference to political struggles highly favor- 
able to the growth of despotic power." 

I am proud to say, fellow-citizens, that it has been my good 
fortune to be associated with one against whose administration 
the only criticism which has been pronounced is his sacred regard 
for similar promises, and the unconquerable intrepidity with 
which he stands by them. * * * Speaking of the effect of this 
practice upon the character of a party, he adds: " Their object 



98 

is to get and to hold office, and their leading; political maxim, 
opeuly avowed on this floor by one of their former Senators 
from New York, now Governor of that State, Mr. Marcy, is that 
' to the victors belong the spoils of victory !' — a sentiment reite- 
rated during the present session, as I understand, by an influen- 
tial member of the House, and who had the assurance to declare 
every man a hypocrite who does not avow it. Can any one who 
will duly reflect on these things venture to say that all is sound 
and that our government is not undergoing a great and fatal 
change ? Let us not deceive ourselves. The very essence of a 
free government consists in considering offices as public trusts 
bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of 
an individual or a party, and that system of political morals 
which regards offices in a different light as public prizes to be 
won by combatants most skilled in the arts of political tactics 
and intrigue, and to be used and enjoyed as their proper spoils, 
strikes a fatal blow at the very vitals of free institutions." Mr. 
Calhoun said : ''Experience has shown that there is a great 
tendency in our system to degenerate into this diseased state, 
and I may venture to repeat — it cannot be done too often — what 
is stated in the report, that Avhenever the executive patronage 
shall become sufficiently strong to form a party based on its in- 
fluence exclusively, the liberty of the country, should that state 
of things continue for any considerable period, must be lost.'" 

It gives me pride and pleasure to say that South Carolina has 
never departed from these great principles. I cannot refrain 
from paying my tribute of applause to the ability and eloquence 
and firmness with which Senator Butler, of yoiir State, sustained 
these doctrines on the floor of the United States Senate. In 
reply to a vivid and truthful portrayal, by a political friend, of 
the terrible misgovernment through which the people of the 
South had passed, and to the inquiry if he would have retained 
in the departments at \\'ashington those who were engaged in 
that misgovernment, he replied: "Why, Mr. President, the 
people of the South rejoice too much in a restoration of their 
liberty to care about the paltry offices in Washington. * * * 
When it comes to a great question of this kind I am not a 
Southern man. I hope I represent the people of this country 
in desiring the improvement of its civil service ; it is an object 
which rises high above considerations of party or of section, in 



99 

my humble judgment. * * * As compared with the im- 
provement of tlie civil service of this Government, I say to the 
Senator as a representative in part of the State of South Caro- 
lina I will give up every office in the departments in Washington 
and I will go before my people and sustain myself upon that 
position." Gen. Wade Hampton has given the sanction of his 
name to the maintenance of these principles in his own practical 
and effectual way by advocating legislation to suppress the abuses 
of Government patronage. As an individual I desire to express 
my high appreciation of the fidelity of South Carolina to her 
old landmarks, as evinced in the recent resolutions of her Legis- 
lature on the subject of civil service reform, and her just and 
manly support of the President's conduct on this subject. In 
1842 Mr. Calhoun addressed the Senate upon an amendment to 
the Constitution offered by Mr. Clay to abolish the veto i)ower 
of the President, in a speech in which he discussed with irresis- 
tible force, indeed, with overwhelming power, the principles 
which underlie the reciprocal relations of the different depart- 
ments of the Federal Government, the symmetrical proj)ortions 
of the whole system, and the marvellous yet admirable combi- 
nation of checks and balances designed for the perpetuation of 
constitutional liberty. The young men of this country who 
aspire to statesmanship or public usefulness might study this 
speech with lasting benefit and edification. 

In 1843 he retired from the United States Senate, with a view 
to permanent retirement from public life. In a short time, 
however, he was called to the office of Secretary of State bv 
President T3der, near the close of his administration, to con- 
clude the negotiations for the annexation of Texas, which he 
accomplished with bis usual ability and success, a measure which 
added immensely to the territory, resources and power of the 
United States. 

In 1845 the status of the Oregon question was such that war 
with England seemed to be inevitable. The Administration of 
Mr. Polk had committed itself to a withdrawal of the notice to 
England of the termination of the treaty for the joint use and 
occupation of that territory, with a view to claim and take pos- 
session of the entire territory up to 54'' 40', and a majority of 
both Houses of Congress were supposed to favor the policy. It 
was supported warmly by Gen. Cass in the Senate, and the ven- 



100 

erable Ex-President John Qnincy Adams in the House. The 
former repeatedly declared that "war is iuevitable/' indeed, 
" almost upon us." A general uneasiness pervaded the country. 
In Mr. Calhoun's own words, ''stocks of every description fell, 
marine insurance rose, commercial pursuits were suspended, and 
our vessels remained inactive at the wharves." All over the 
country there was a demand that Mr. Calhoun, as the most 
powerful and influential member of the Democratic party, should 
at once be returned to the Senate to prevent the carrying out of 
the war policy of the new Administration. Mr. Huger resigned 
his seat in the Senate and Mr. Calhoun was unanimously elected 
to take his place. His speech on the Oregon question, soon after 
he took his seat, was a masterpiece of political wisdom, sagacity 
and rare eloquence, and reveals his characteristic courage. It 
shows the deep impression which the war of 1812 had made upon 
his mind with regard to the dangers of war to Republican insti- 
tutions and the importance of avoiding it whenever it can be 
done with safety to national honor or the rights of the people. 
But no one can read his utterances upon the grand and noble 
mission of the American Republic and harbor, for one instant, 
any doubt as to his devotion to the Union, and his horror of 
every cause that would imperil its perpetuity. 

On the 11th day of May, 1846, President Polk sent a message 
to Congress in recognition of the fact that war existed between 
the United States and Mexico, and recommending the raising of 
means for its prosecution. The scene was a solemn one, and 
what occurred was often spoken of by the members of that body. 
A motion was made to print 20,000 copies of the message and 
documents. Mr. Calhoun rose and objected, and said that we 
were on the eve of great events, and expressed the hope that we 
would proceed calmly and deliberately. 

It is evident that he foresaw the consequences of the war thus 
precipitated. He foresaw that it would result in the acquisition 
of Mexican territory. He knew that the aversion of the North 
to the institution of slavery would cause the majority of Con- 
gress to exclude that part of the country interested in this insti- 
tution from any share in the advantages to be derived from the 
admission of that institution into the territory thus acquired. 
He knew that if the North, with no interest n the matter ex- 
cept a moral sentiment, was so determined, it would be met with 



101 

an equal determination of resistance by the Southern States. 
He spoke of this as the "terrible difficulty;" and it ^yas so to 
him, for he saw in it the elements of disunion and of blood. It 
has been said that it is easy for a good man to resist Avrong when 
it is clearly opposed to the right, but when virtue is opj^osed to 
virtue, is the real rending of the soul in twain. Mr. Calhoun 
loved the Union with religious devotion, but he loved the South 
also. A conflict betwen his love for the Union and his love for 
the Southern people — that was a terrible thing for him, which 
burdened his heart with sadness and grief. He earnestly 
sought to prevent the occasion for renewing the strife between 
the sections. In his reply to Mr. Benton he spoke as follows : 

" Every Senator knows that I was opposed to the war ; but 
no one knows but myself the depth of that opposition. With 
my conceptions of its character and consequences, it was impos- 
sible for me to vote for it. When, accordingly, I was deserted 
by every friend on this side of the House, including my then 
honorable colleague among the rest (Mr. McDuffie,) I was not 
shaken in the least degree in reference to my course. On the 
passage of the Act recognizing the war, I said to many of my 
friends that a deed has been done from which the country would 
not be able to recover for a long time, if ever ; and added, it 
has dropped a curtain between the present and the future, 
which, to me, is impenetrable : and for the first time since I 
have been in public life I am unable to see the future. I also 
added that it has closed the first volume of our political history 
under the constitution, and opened the second, and that no 
mortal could tell what would be written in it." 

That second volume has been written, and the Avorld knows 
its contents. We are now in the third volume of our constitn- 
tional history. May its recorded story correspond with Calhouu^s 
divination of the possibilities of our future destiny as delivered 
in 1846 in the Oregon debate. He said in substance that " Provi- 
dence had given us an inheritance stretching across the entire 
continent from ocean to ocean, from north to south, covering by 
far the greater and better part of its temperate zone, and com- 
prising a region not only of vast extent but abounding in all 
resources, excellent in climate, fertile and exuberant in soil, ca- 
pable of sustaining in the plentiful enjoyment of all the neces- 
saries of life, a population of ten times our present number. 

14 



102 

That our great mission as a people is to occupy this vast domain; 
to replenish it with an intelligent, virtuous and industrious pop- 
ulation ; to convert the forests into cultivated fields ; to drain 
the swamps and morasses and cover them with rich harvests ; 
to build up cities, towns and villages in every direction, and to 
unite the whole by the most rapid intercourse between all the 
parts." He then rose to higher grounds and a broader view and 
stated that we were charged by Providence not only with the 
happiness of this great and rising people, but in a considerable 
degree with that of tlie human race. After passing through a 
rapid review of the great discoveries and inventions, multiplied 
beyond all former examples by which the vast powers of nature 
were rendered subservient to the purposes of art, to the spread 
of civilization, to the general progress of the nation in knowl- 
edge and to its diffusion through all ranks of society ; more es- 
pecially to the two great agents of the physical world, steam and 
electricity, "the latter of which," he said, "had been made an 
instrument for the transmission of thought by lightning itself — 
magic wires are stretching themselves in all directions over the 
earth, and when their mystic meshes shall have been united and 
perfected, our globe itself will become endowed with sensitive- 
ness so that whatever touches on any one point will be instantly 
felt on every other." 

He declared that all this improvement and progress are but 
the dawn of a new civilization, more refined, more elevated, 
more intellectual, more moral than the present and all others 
preceding him. " We have been raised up, " said he, " by 
Providence to advance these great and noble purposes. 
* * * We have a Government of a new order, perfectly dis- 
tinct from all others which have preceded it, a Government 
founded on the rights of man, resting not on authority, not on 
prejudice, not on superstition, but on reason and consent. All 
civilized governments, if it succeeds, must in the course of time 
conform to its principles. I trust we shall not fail to fulfill our 
highest destiny." 

Fellow-citizens : The institution of slavery I That question 
has been settled. Slavery is dead — buried in a grave that never 
gives up its dead. Why reopen it to-day ? Let it rest. Yet, 
if I remain silent upon the subject it will be taken as an admis- 
sion that there is one part of Mr. Calhoun's life of wb.ich it is, 



108 

prudent for his friends to say nothing to the present generation. 
Dissimulation and evasion were so foreign to his character that 
in his own case no one would disapprove and even disdain such 
silence more than he. I have this to say : That with reference 
to the constitutional status of slavery in the States, Mr. Cal- 
houn never entertained or expressed a sentiment that was not 
entertained and expressed by Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, 
Daniel Webster and all the eminent statesmen of his time. That 
slavery was an institution of society in the States, sanctioned 
and upheld by the Constitution of the United States ; that it 
was an institution of property, recognized, protected and en- 
forced even upon the States where slavery did not exist, by the 
fundamental law of the Union ; that it was an institution of 
political power which under the provisions of the Constitution, 
increased the representation of the Southern States on the floor 
of Congress, and in the electoral college, was admitted by every 
public man in the country who had the slightest title to position 
as a statesman. 

The only difference between Mr. Calhoun on the one hand, 
Webster and Clay and such statesmen on the other, was that the 
measures hostile to slavery which they sometimes countenanced, 
and at other times advocated, he saw and predicted were in con- 
flict with these guarantees in the Constitution, and that their 
direct tendency and inevitable effect, and, in many cases, avowed 
motive, was the destruction of slavery in the States. And whilst 
Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay disclaimed any such motive and de- 
nied any such probable effects, he declared to Mr. Webster in 
debate that the sentiment would grow and increase until, tram- 
pling down in its strides all the forms of the Constitution, he 
(Mr. Webster) would himself be compelled to succumb or be 
swept down beneath it. 

Vain the forms of law, vain the barriers of the Constitution, 
vain the considerations of State policy. Vain the eloquence and 
the compromises of statesmen. His predictions were verified to 
the letter. They were all swept away before the irresistible force 
of the civilization of the Nineteenth Century, whose moral 8en« 
tinient demanded the extinction of slavery. 

Every benefit which slavery conferred upon those subject to 
it ; all the ameliorating and humanizing tendencies it intro- 
duced into the life of the African ; all the elevating agencies 



104 

which lifted him higher in the scale of rational and moral being, 
were the elements of the fnture and inevitable destrnction of 
the system. The mistake that was made by the Sonthern de- 
fenders of slavery was in regarding it as a permanent form of 
society instead of a process of emergence and transition from 
barbarism to freedom. If at this very day the JSTorth or the 
American Union were to propose to re-establish the institution 
it would be impracticable ; the South could not and would not 
accept it as a boon. Slavery as it existed then could not exist 
under the present commercial and industrial systems of Europe 
and America. The existing industrial relations of capital and 
labor had there been no secession, no war, would of themselves 
have brought about the death of slavery. 

Fellow-citizens, at the commencement of my remarks, I stated 
my estimate of Mr. Calhoun's private and personal character, 
also his character as a statesman and a thinker. As an orator 
and debator he has often been described. His friend, personal 
and political, Mr. Ehett, speaks of " his earnestness and eleva- 
tion of language, which bears the mind on as if on a swift, deep 
current ;" of " his close, compact logic, which moved with the 
precision and measured tread of a Spartan phalanx." Senator 
Hammond said of him : " The intellect of Mr. Calhoun was 
cast in the Grecian mould, intuitive, profound, original, descend- 
ing to the minutest details of practical affairs, and soaring aloft 
with a balanced wing into the highest region of invention. The 
force of his imagination, his command of language, his enthu- 
siastic temperament, eminently qualified him for declamation of 
the highest order, but his themes were as well adapted to it as 
those of Demosthenes himself." Mr. Webster's idea of him was 
thus expressed : " The eloquence of Mr. Calhoun, or the man- 
ner of his exhibition of his sentiments m public, was part of his 
intellectual character. It grew out of the qualities of his mind. 
It was plain, strong, terse, condensed, concise, sometimes im- 
passioned, yet always severe." 

I have given these descriptions by others of Mr. Calhoun's 
style, because I feel unable to characterize it in a manner satis- 
factory to my own mind. I do not think elevation of language, 
terse, condensed expression, force of logic, soaring imagination, 
earnest feeling, and impassioned declamation, adequately ex- 
press all its qualities. I have thought that his eloquence was 



105 

clue more to the simple majesty of his thoughts than to the dic- 
tion in which they were clothed, or the logical processes by 
which they were presented. The chief quality of his style seems 
to be that of giving the true impression of a profound and ele- 
vated mind, communicating its thoughts and feelings to the 
minds of others in words plain and clear, and sentences simple 
and natural. There is between the human mind and truth a 
perfect correspondence, it was created for truth as its object, 
and when brought into contact with it, the mind by the very 
law of its being, instinctively and intuitively embraces truth 
with credence and faith, unless prejudice or passion or some 
other agency interposes between the two and leads it away. 
Now, Mr. Calhoun's style, I think, had this great merit among 
those already mentioned, that it brought before the minds of 
men the pure, unsophisticated truth of his thought as it existed 
in his own mind. When, therefore, he spoke, those who listened 
to him were brought into communion direct with his own great 
thoughts, splendid conceptions, prophetic foresight, moral gran- 
deur and soul-kindling passion ; and they would feel their own 
minds strengthened, enriched, enlarged and ennobled by the 
contact with his intellectual and moral nature. 

Mr. Calhoun's conception of the duties belonging to the sta- 
tion he occupied indisposed him to personal controversies or to 
sarcastic retorts upon his opponents ; but when remarks of this 
character by them left him 710 other alternative than to notice 
them, his replies never failed to impress all who heard him with 
the consciousness that he moved in a sphere of thought and feel- 
ing far above the reach of his assailant. Upon one occasion a 
Senator from Delaware, commenting upon the distinction which 
Mr. Calhoun had drawn between sovereignty itself and the dele- 
gation of sovereignty to the different departments of the Gov- 
ernment, (a distinction now familiar and never denied,) said that 
this was metaphysical reasoning which he could not comprehend. 
To this Mr. Calhoun replied as follows : 

"The Senator from Delaware calls this metaphysical reason- 
ing, which he says he cannot comprehend. If by metaphysics 
he means that schoJastic refinement which makes distinctions 
without difference, no one can hold it in more utter contempt 
than I do. But if, on the contrary, he means the power of 
analysis and combination, that power which reduces the most 



106 

complex idea into its elements, which traces causes to their first 
principles, and, by the power of generalization and combination 
unites the whole in one harmonious system — then, so far from 
deserving contempt, it is the highest attribnte of the mind. It is 
the power which raises the man above the brute, which distin- 
guishes his faculties from mere sagacity, which he holds in com- 
mon with inferior animals. It is this power which has raised the 
astronomer from being a mere gazer at the stars to the high in- 
tellectual eminence of a Newton or a LaPlace, and astronomy 
itself from a mere observation of isolated facts into that noble 
science which displays to our admiration the system of the uni- 
verse. And shall this high power of the mind, which has effected 
such wonders when directed to the laws that control the material 
world, be forever prohibited, under the senseless cry of meta- 
physics, from being applied to the high purposes of political 
science and legislation ? I hold them to be subject to laws as 
fixed as matter itself, and to be as fit a subject for the applica- 
tion of the highest j^olitical power. Denunciation may indeed 
fall upon the philosophical inquirer into these first principles, 
as it did upon Galileo and Bacon when they first unfolded the 
great discoveries wliich have immortalized their names ; but the 
time will come when truth will prevail in spite of prejudice and 
denunciation, and when politics and legislation will be consid- 
ered as much a scheme as astronomy and chemistry." 

Suggestions of a touching nature present themselves to me at 
this moment, but I have not the time nor the strength to speak of 
them here. You will pardon me, however, for pausing to express 
my personal gratification at recognizing the presence of one who is 
here in the place of her honored and illustrious father whose 
name is inseparably associated with these ceremonies on account 
of the eloquent address which he delivered at the laying of the 
corner-stone of this monument — the Martyr, Patriot, and Ora- 
tor, Lawrence M. Keitt, of whom I can say truly, as was said 
by Charles James Fox, *'it is difficult to determine whether we 
most admire the statesman or love the man." 

I cannot forbear, either, to allude to the venerable and be- 
loved Carolina matron who, amid all the perils of war and the 
storms of battle, carried, concealed on her persDu, the sacred 
fund which was dedicated to the erection of this monument. 

Ladies of the South Carolina Association, I have attempted 



107 

to respond to the call with which your kindness has honored 
me. I regret deeply that absorbing duties of an official charac- 
ter, leaving me not even the intermission of a day of freedom, 
have allowed no opportunity to prepare for the performance of 
the task in a manner worthy of the theme and of the occasion. 
It is well that this monumental statue on South Carolina's 
soil has been reared through the instrumentality of her own 
fair daughters. His life was one uninterrupted homage to 
women. 

Mr. Calhoun was the true son of South Carolina. His just 
fame and great name were the fruits of her social system, and 
will be her glory when succeeding generations shall learn and 
appreciate the lessons of political truth taught by him, and shall 
inhale his pure spirit of patriotism, his exhalted conception of 
duty, and become inspired by the honor, fidelity, courage, and 
purity of life which rooted themselves in the soul of the man 
whose statue South Carolina women have erected in commemo- 
ration of the affectionate reverence with which they commend 
him to the honor, love, imitation, and confidence of mankind. 

The Rev. W. F. Junkin next read the following ode, by Mrs. 
Margaret J. Preston: 

CALHOUN. 

By Margaret J. Preston. 

[Written by request, for the unveiling of the Statue of .John C. Calhoun. 
at Charleston, South Carolina, April 26th, 1887.] 

I. 

Stand forth, stern patriot! calm, severe. 

As in thine hour's supreme elation, 
When eager Senates thronged to hear 

The voice that thrilled a listening nation. 

11. 

Step from thy civic chair; receive 

The homage which thy people render : 
The best that grateful hearts can give 

To keep thy memory fresh and tender. 



108 
III. 

Our City by llic Sea, wliile yet 
Disaster lays its grasp upon her, 

Remembers her inviolate debt 
Of pride and reverence, love and honor. 

IV. 

Her spires may rock, her towers may fall,- 
Her centuried grandeur sink and perish ; 

Her homes be ravaged, roof and wall. 
And ruin blast what most she cherished ; 

V. 

While yet one spot stands firm and fair, 

Safe from the elemental riot, 
We'll place our patriot-warder there. 

Sublime in his majestic quiet. 

VI. 

Through life his watch knew no surcease: 
Wliat then, if in the far Elysian, 

Througli the clear atmosphere of peace, 
He holds us still in vatic vision ! 

VII. 
The eye so keen to note the wrong, — 

The voice so firm for law and order : — 
Shall we not own their guidance strong. 

From mountain crest to ocean border? 

VIII. 

With reverence for the power that led 
His mind to each profound conviction. 

We bow beneath his hand outspread, 
And here receive his benediction ! 

IX. 

Truth,* with her mirror, at his feet. 
Gives back, without a wane of glory. 

His whole consistent life, complete 
As some clear page of classic story. 



*The four allegoric figuies on the base of the monument represent Truth, 
Justice, The Coruititutioii and History, 



109 

X. 

stern Justice vows, by sword and shield,— 
Her robes of regal state upon her,— 

That she, as soon her scales could yield 
As he— his Carolina's honor! 

XI. 

And in her sovereign majesty. 
The Constitution, with her token 

Spread open on her bended knee.— 
Not one of all her fasces broken— 

XII. 

Looks up to him, whose giant thrust 
Still kept at bay each pressing foeman; 

Ready;.to die,— if die he must,— 

"Pro Patria!" — grand as any Roman! 

XIII. 

See! History takes her diamond pen, 
To trace with calmness unimpassioned, 

From first to last, his life,- for when 
Was statesman's life so purely fashioned?— 

XIV. 

So tireless in its aim to wage 

The war of splendid word and action :— 
So staunch amid the rant and rage 

Of envious and ignoble faction: — 

XV. 

So like a lighthouse on a rock, 
When fast the surges swirl, and faster; 

Still warning those who did but mock. 
Of tempest, shipwreck, wrench, disaster! 

XVI. 

Yet, ere the onset, doomed to die! 

Disdaining place, and fame and favor: 
_" 3Iy Country! "—still his latest sigh— 

" J u'ould have staked my life to save her ! ' 

XVII. 

Yea— when the stress of peril came. 

And war's wild ravage sore bestead them. 
He would have led her hosts through flame 
Of battle, even as Hampton led them! 
15 



110 

XVIII. 

He would have died, like gallant Bee, 

As if a martyr's crown had crowned him, 
To guard his State's dear sovereignty, 

With her Palmetto flag around him ! 

XIX. 

Fair Carolina ! Mid the names 

That blazon thy heroic pages, 
Whose record all our reverence claims — 

Whose words go sounding down the ages — 

XX. 

Place first, placed foremost, proudest, best, 
The name here cut, whose splendid story, 

Blown henceward, — North, East, South, and West — 
Remains your heritage of glory ! 

The benediction was then pronounced by the Eev. John 0. 

Willson, and the crowd dispersed. 

THE SALUTE. 

The Vice-President's sahite of nineteen guns was fired at 
White Point Garden as the statue was unveiled. The firing 
was done by a platoon of the German Artillery, under the direc- 
tion of Major Geo. W. Bell, of Gen. Huguenin's staff, the mes- 
sage to commence firing being transmitted to his father by 
Master Geo. W. Bell. The guns were handled by the veteran 
members of the corps, all of whom paraded at the Calhoun 
funeral thirty-seven years ago. The following was the detach- 
ment: 

Col. Franz Melchers, commanding officer ; Capt. Hermann 
Klatte, lieutenant of section; C. H. Bergmann, orderly sergeant; 
D. Bollmann, ordnance sergeant; F. Puckhaber, 1st sergeant; 
F. J. Lilienthal, 3d sergeant; W. Rieppe, 1st corporal; C. Wul- 
bern, 2d corporal. 

Cannoneers first piece — J. H, Patjens, C. A, Cammann, E. 
Albrecht, A. Hinchen, G. Dreyer. 

Cannoneers second piece — C. Meyer, M. Bartel, J. J. W. 
Luden, C. F. A. Bultmann, H. Viohl, J. C. Schlepegrell. 



Ill 
THE GUESTS OF THE CITY. 



The following distinguished citizens were specially invited to 
be the guests of the city during their visit, with rooms at the 
Charleston Hotel. 

Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, Orator of the Day. Parlors 114 and 
115. 

Hon. C. S. Fairchild, Secretary of the Treasury. Parlors 117 
and ] 17i 

Hon. Wm. P. Vilas, Postmaster-General. Parlors 138 and 139- 

Mr. "W". W. Corcoran. Invited, but could not come. 

Hon. D. W. Vorhees, Senator from Indiana. Parlor 134. 

Hon. N. H. R. Dawson, Superintendent of Education, De- 
partment of the Interior. Parlor 134. 

L. Q. C. Lamar, Jr. Parlor 134. 

L. Q. Washington. Parlor 79. 

Hon. Hugh S. Thompson, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 
and Ex-Governor of South Carolina, made all the arrangements 
in Washington, D. C, for the accommodation and comfort of 
the distinguished guests. His most satisfactory arrangements 
were highly appreciated by the Ladies of the Association. 



112 

ITEMS OF INTEREST. 



Little Miss Jennie Legare Rodgers, a daughter of Mr. S. H. 
Eodgers, of Beaufort, and a lineal descent of Jacob and Rebecca 
Motte, of Revolutionary days, and of Solomon Legare, the 
Huguenot patriarch, was in the city to partici2:)ate in the cere- 
monies of Calhoun Day. 

Among the visitors to the city was Mr. C. Morse, the New 
York agent of the Associated Press. 

Col. Reginald Hart, a prominent member of the New York 
Bar, was on the stand. 

Col. James F. Hart, of York, attended the unveiling cere- 
monies. 

Miss Kate Marshall brought a wreath from the birthplace of 
Calhoun. 

Among the most attractive decorations of the monument 
was a large basket of beautiful roses, sent by Mrs. Col. EI. M. 
Stuart, of Beaufort. 

Unquestionably the oldest of the spectators at the unveiling 
was Mr. John S. Bird, Sr., whose ninety-four years did not inca- 
pacitate him from mounting to a seat on the stage. 

Miss Houston, of Augusta, wore a sdver crescent which was 
presented by the illustrious statesman, Calhoun, to her grand 
mother, who was his sister. 

The colors used for veiling the statue came from the State 
in which the great statesman was educated, Connecticut. They 
belong to the schooner W. W. Converse, of New Haven, and 
were, with other bunting, lent to the Association by Capt. J. H. 
Seaman. 

Mr. James C. Jervey, a member, bore the old banner of the 
South Carolina Society in the procession. It is of blue silk, on 
which is painted the seal of the society, a hand bearing a grape- 
vine, with the motto " Posteritati/' and the figures 1737, the 
date of the society's organization. 

While the Palmetto Regiment was drawn up on South Bat- 
tery, much attention was given by the civilians, who thronged 
about the troops, to a famous ilag born by Corp. Lynch, of the 
Governor's Guards. This Hag was presented to the Palmetto 



113 

Regiment in the City of Mexico by the Governor of Kentucky. 
It is in the keeping of the survivors of the old Palmetto Regi- 
ment, and has been to all reunions of Mexican veterans held in 
this State. It was lent for this occasion by Capt. W. B. Stan- 
ley, of Columbia, who has been for many years its custodian. 
The blue silk, of which it is made, is much faded, and show 
many rents, but the gold eagle in heavy bullion embroidery, 
which is the chief design of this flag, is as bright as when it was 
first raised in the captured Mexican capital. 

The following are the names of the young men, who on 26th 
inst, decorated with flowers Mr. Calhoun's tomb in St. Philip's 
Church-yard — E. Opdebeck, B. B. Ruddock, II. Purse, S. B. 
Bollinger, G. Errichsen, H. M. White. 

The Hon. Bradish Johnson, of New Orleans, who recovered 
the Powers' statue of Calhoun, Avhich had been sunk in New 
York harbor, was specially invited to attend the unveiling 
ceremonies. Mr. Johnson was at the time in New York harbor 
in his private yacht, and at his own expense recovered the 
statue and brought it to Charleston, where he received an ova- 
tion from the citizens. The celebrated statue was removed 
from its place in the City Hall to Columbia during the war. It 
was there destro3'ed by Sherman, according to Southern author- 
ities, and by Hampton according to Sherman, Sunday-school 
Howard and other manufacturers of war history. 



LETTERS 



SOME OF THE DISTINGUISHED PERSONS 



ANSWER TO INVITATIONS 



TAKE PART IN THE UNVEILING CEEEMONIES 



Calhoun Monument. 



HE following letters bear testimony of the respect and 
regard in which the memory of Mr, Calhonn is held by 
many of the distinguished men coming after him, some 
of whom had the rare fortune of knowing him personally. 
These letters, written from all parts of the United States, and, 
coming as they do from personages who have been elevated 
on the shield and placed there by the will of the people, may 
well be taken as the general expression of good will towards and 
brotherly love for the great and good Carolinian. They show 
the sympathy of this large-hearted country is in unison with 
the women of South Carolina for fixing in bronze and granite a 
centre of history, and, for paying this their tribute of love to a 
gentle, pure and upright man: 

Beau VOIR, Miss., April 16, 1887. 
Mrs. George Bobertson, President, &c. : 

Dear Madame — Accept my thanks for your kind invitation 
to myself and family to be present at the unveiling of the 
ladies' monument to Calhoun. I regret that it will not be in 
our power to attend, for besides the veneration and affection of 
Mrs. Davis and myself for the great and pure statesman to 
whose memory you do honor, it would be a pleasure to us to pay 
this tribute of duty and respect. 

Mr. Calhoun was to me the guiding star in the political firma- 
ment and I was honored by him with such confidence as made 
our intercourse not only instructive, but of enduring love. In 
an important crisis in public affairs, his health failed, but with 
that devotion to the public welfare which had characterized his 
whole life, he continued to occupy his seat in the Senate, when 
his indomitable spirit was vainly struggling against his physical 
exhaustion. His wisdom and extraordinary administrative tal- 
ent were then specially required to teach, direct and sustain, 
but he was taken from us 

" Like a summer dried fountain. 
When our need was the sorest." 
16 



118 

Mr. Webster, who had been his great intellectual opponent, 
but, nevertheless, his warm personal friend, when speaking, on 
the occasion of his death, manifested deeper emotion than I ever 
knew him to exhibit on any other occasion. He impressively 
said, nothing that was selfish or impure ever came near the head 
or heart of Calhoun. 

I am gratified that the ladies — the best part of humanity — 
have contributed this testimonial to one blameless as themselves. 

Please tender with my regrets my grateful acknowledgments 
to your associates for their courteous invitation, in which my 
wife cordially unites, and believe me to be. 

Respectfully and truly yours, 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Mrs. George Robertson, President; Mrs. Joseph Walker, Vice- 
President; Mrs. Henry WigfaV, Vice-President ; Mrs. 
H. W. DeSaussure, Vice-President ; Mrs. M. A. Snoivden, 
Treasurer ; Mrs. Joseph BlacTcman, Correspondi?ig Secretary; 
Miss Fannie E. DeSaussure, Recording Secretary. 



Mrs. George Robertson and Ladies Associated in Connection with 

the Calhoun Monument : 

Esteemed Ladies — Accept my many thanks for your con- 
siderate courtesy, allow me, however, to beseech you to 
condone my absence on the interesting occasion. 

After so many years of quiet routine, in a delightful loca- 
tion, which has procured for me perfect health and contentment, 
at my extreme age, any change will be a hazardous episode ; not 
that I care for the extinguishing of the lamp, but I would avoid 
the possible previous flickering. 

Very respectfully, yours, 

* JAMES EDWARD COLHOUN. 

Trotter's Shoals, Abbeville Co., April 18, 1887. 



Lloyd's, Essex County, Va., April 19, 1887. 
Mr. H. E. Young, Chairman Auxiliary Committee: 

I received the kind and complimentary invitation from the 
ladies of the Association to be present at the unveiling of Cal- 



* The bi-other-in-law of J. C. Calhoun. 



119 

hoim's statue, and sincerely regret my inability to attend. 
I could not undertake the fatigue of the journey, but none 
will be there who feel a more ardent admiration for the great 
Carolinian, or who would desire more earnestly to honor his 
memory. Please tender my thanks to the ladies of the Associa- 
tion, and with sincere respect, 

I am, very truly, 

E. M. T. HUNTER. 



Washington, April 8, 1887. 
Mrs. M. A. Snowden, Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Madame — I am obliged by the card of invitation to the 
unveiling ceremonies of the Calhoun Monument on the 26th 
instant, accompanied by your personal card, and beg to say that 
if I am well enough at that time, I will certainly have pleasure 
in being present on that interesting occasion. 

With thanks for your kind remembrance, I remain. 
Very truly, yours, 

W. W. CORCORAN. 



City of Charleston, | 
Executive Department, April 15, 1887. \ 
Mr. W. W. Corcoran, Washington, D. C. : 

My Dear Sir — I have just seen your letter of the 8th ad- 
dressed to Mis. Snowden, in which you kindly express the hope 
that you will be able to be present at the unveiling of the Cal- 
houn Monument on the 26th instant. I hasten to say that your 
coming here on this occasion would be exceedingly gratifying to 
the people of Charleston, and I cordially invite you to do so as 
the guest of the City of Charleston. 

I have engaged rooms for you at the Charleston Hotel, and 
will feel greatly honored if you will kindly send me a dispatch 
stating by what train you will reach here, in order that I might 
meet you in person and welcome you to the city. 
Yours, very respectfully, 

WM. A. COURTENAY, Mayor. 



120 

Washington, April 18, 1887. 
The Hon. Wm. A. Courtenay, Mayor of Charleston, S. C. : 

My Dear Sir — I have received your favour of the 15th instant, 
inviting me to visit your city, as its guest, on the occasion of 
the unveiling of the statue of the illustrious Calhoun. 

I thank you most cordially for the honour you have done me 
and greatly regret that the state of my health admonishes me 
that it is too long a journey for me to undertake at my time of 
life and in the present state of my health. Thanking you for 
the very kind and courteous manner in which you have con- 
veyed to me the invitation, and with warm wishes for the welfare 
of the people of the city, and for yourself personally, I am, 
dear sir, 

Very truly, yours, 

W. W. CORCORAN. 



Washington, April 20, 1887. 
Mrs. M. A. 8nowden, Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Madame — I have received your favour of the 18th, 
and appreciate your kind invitation, but the state of my health 
is such that I have been compelled to abandon the trip, and do- 
ing myself the great pleasure I had anticipated ; and I have so 
informed Mr. Courtenay in response to his very cordial invitation 
to become the guest of the city. Neither of my grand-children 
are at home, two of them being at Aiken and the other at 
college. Greatly regretting my inability to be present on the 
interesting occasion, I remain, 

Sincerely, yours, 

W. W. CORCORAN. 



Washington, April 26, 1887. 
Hon. Wm. A. Courtenay, Charleston, S. C. : 

My Dear Sir — I have to confirm my dispatch of the 23d inst., 
P. M,, that " Though in my ordinary health, lam advised by my 
physician and by all my friends that it would be imprudent for 
me to make a fatiguing journey to Charleston. I yield to their ad- 



121 

vice most reluctantly, and, in foregoing my promised visit, I beg 
leave to renew to you and to the people of Charleston my pro- 
found thanks for the courtesy with which I have been honored;" 
and I beg again to renew the expression of my great regret and 
disappointment in being unable to join you in the interesting 
ceremonies of the occasion. But my general inability to undergo 
fatigue admonishes me to forego the great pleasure I anticipated 
and abide by the advice of my medical adviser, seconded by all 
my friends; and I avail myself of the only pleasure that is left 
me, to repeat my profound sensibility of the honor you have 
done me, and of my wishes for the welfare of your people. 
I have the honor to remain, 

Very truly, yours, 

W. W. CORCORAN. 



Washington, May 2, 1887. 
Dear M^'s. 8noioden : 

I have your favor of the 28th of April, with the beautiful 
badge intended for me, on the occasion of the unveiling of the 
Calhoun Monument. You could not have been more disap- 
pointed than I was in not being able to be present, but there 
was no hope for it. 

Please accept my thanks for the badge, which I will keep as a 
souvenir, while I remain, with very kind regards. 

Yours truly, 

W. W. CORCORAN. 
Mrs. M. A. jSnowde?i, Charleston, S. C. 



Boston", Massachusetts, 
90 Marlborough Street, April 14, 1887. 
Mrs. George Robertson, President : 

My Dear Madame — I am greatly honored by the invitation 
of the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association, and I regret sin- 
cerely that it will not be in my power to be with them on the 
26th instant. It would afford me real pleasure to witness the 
unveiling of a statue of the illustrious statesman of the South, 



122 

whom it was my privilege to know personally at Washington, 
and for whose memory I have always cherished a warm regard 
and respect. 

Most gladly would I pay renewed homage to the unsullied 
purity of his private life, the inflexible integrity of his public 
career, and the unsurpassed ability which he displayed in every 
department of our Federal Government. 

Accept, dear Madame, for yourself and the ladies associated 
with you, my most grateful acknowledgments, and believe me, 
Respectfully and truly yours, 

ROBERT 0. WINTHROP. 



Stuyvesant Square, N. W. Corner 17th Street, ) 

New York, April 21, 1887. J 
To the Ladies' Gallioun Monument Association, Charleston, 

S. C: 

I regret my inability to accept the invitation with which 
you have honored me, to be present at the unveiling cei-emonies 
of your monument to Calhoun, on the 26th mst. 

If high intellectual gifts, if spotless purity in both public and 
private life, if the earnest following of the honest convictions of 
one's mind, if great public services, entitled a man to have his 
name, his fame and his memory perpetuated to future ages, by 
monuments and symbols, unquestionably Mr. Calhoun is emi- 
nently thus entitled. 

During a long and active life ; amid fierce differences of 
thought on questions of grave and of burning interest, his 
strong views were never withheld, nor were the honesty and 
sincerity of his convictions ever questioned, and the widest dis- 
sent from his opinions was ever attended with the knowledge of 
the sincerity and the purity iu which they were entertained, 
and with an appreciation of the force, with which they were 
maintained. 

Your, invitation gives me the welcome opportunity to congrat- 
ulate you on the completion of your beautiful tribute to the 
memory of a great man ; and to express my appreciation, ( amid 
many differences of views on some public questions,) of the high 



123 



integrity, and great public services ; and my admiration of the 
lofty gen ins of Mr. Calhoun. 

I have the honour to be, ladies. 

Your very obedient servant, 

HAMILTON FISH. 



Law Office of W. W. Harllee, ) 
Marion, S. C, April 20, 1887, [ 
Dear Mrs. Snoivden : 

I beg leave to acknowledge with thanks and gratification the 
invitation of your association, to attend the ceremonies of the 
unveiling of the Calhoun Monument, on 26th inst. Nothing 
could afford nie more pleasure than to be a living witness to the 
honors shown to the great statesman and patriot, whom I 
personally knew well, and whose counsels and teachings in social 
converse, and written communications, which I yet treasure, 
have had, I trust, a proper influence in my public life. Men 
may talk, and exhalt the virtues of Mr. Calhoun, but it has 
been the patient, unwearying and ceaseless energy of our noble 
women of the State, which gives the enduring evidence of their 
appreciation to the pure and spotless character of her beloved 
and gifted son . 

Future history, if impartial, will place the women of South 
Carolina at the front rank of all civilization, yet published c-r 
known. The trials which they, in common with their South- 
ern sisters, endured in the troublous times, now passing away, 
with their unconquerable heroism and pride, can but place 
them the equals, if not the superiors, of the mother of the 
Grracchi. 

And you my estemed and valued friend, '' plenUous in good 
ivorhs,"" should rank as a shining star, in the ovations which 
will become the historic tribute to the noble, the good, and gen- 
erous self-devotion of the patriot woman. 

With my best wishes for the success, now assured, of your un- 
dertaking. I am, respectfully and truly. 

Your obedient servant, 

W. W. HAELLEE. 



124 

Washington, D. C, April 23, 1887. 
Dear Mrs. Snoiuden : 

I thank you with all my heart for the beautiful card which 
tells me that I am remembered in the festivities and joys of 
your people. 

My heart will be with you on that day, and may the blessing 
of the good Lord and Father of us all be with you as well. 
Yours lovingly, and always, 

CLARA BAETON, 
President Ai7i. Nat. Red Cross. 



St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, La. 
To the Ladies of the Calhoun Monument Association : 

Mrs. Albert Sidney Johnston sents her thanks to the Ladies 
of the Calhoun Monument Association, for their kind invitation, 
and regrets the impossibility to be with them on the 26th of 
April, when Carolina will pay tribute to the talents, worth and 
greatness of her favorite son, the Orator and Statesman, whom 
the whole South takes pride. 

The ladies will please accept Mrs, Johnston's congratulations 
upon the event. Very respectfully, 

ELIZA GRIFFIN JOHNSTON. 



The MISSES SLOMAN return their sincere and heartfelt 
thanks to the Ladies of the Calhoun Monument Association, for 
their kind invitation for the unveiling of the monument. They 
regret exceedingly that it is not in their power to be present on 
the occasion, but although absent, will rejoice with them at the 
completion of their noble enterprise, and in the words of the 
poet exclaim: — 

•' The shaft is up, with prayer on high, 
Let all rejoice who can, 
His name's immortal. It cannot die, 
While thei'e's gratitude in man." 

25 W. 18th St., New York City, ) 
April 21, 1887. J 



125 

TuLANE University of Louisiana, 
New Orleans, April 17, 1887. 
Col. Henry E. Younr/, Chairman Committee, Charleston, S. C: 

Dear Sir : — Permit me to return to you my sincere thanks for 
your polite invitation to attend. the unveiling of the statue of 
Calhoun. 

I regret that my engagements will prevent my attendance. 
There is no man in American history whom I would more rejoice 
to honor. The severe simplicity of his character, the inexorable 
accuracy of logic and the undefiled purity of his patriotism con- 
stitute him the very ideal of a statesman. I claim a part in the 
heritage he has left us, for the fundamental principles of his 
constitutional theory, however varied or modified by time and 
altered circumstances, must remain as the eternal foundation of 
all true Federal Kepublican Government. 

The monument to Calhoun is not only a noble memorial to a 
great and pure man, but a perpetual evidence of the fidelity to 
principle of our people. 

I have the honor to remain, my dear sir, 

Very sincerely and respectfully yours, 

WM. peeston"^johnston. 



Washington and Lee University, ) 

Lexington, Virginia, April 9, 1887. f 
Mrs. Joseph Blachman, Charleston, 8. C. : 

Dear Madame — Gen. Custis Lee, being unable to write, ow- 
ing to a disabled hand, desires me to acknowledge your invita- 
tion for the 26th instant, but regrets that he will be unable to 
attend the unveiling ceremonies, his health and duties prevent- 
ing. Miss Mary Lee is, at present, abroad, and the invitation 
to her will be forwarded at the first opportunity. 
Very respectfully, 

W. C. LUDWIG, Private Secretary. 



Columbia, April 14, 1887. 
The Ladies' Calhoun Momiment Association : 

Ladies — Your invitation to be present at the unveiling cere- 
monies of vour monument to Calhoun has been received. 



126 

Brought np, politically, at the feet of Gamaliel, it is meet 
that I should join in doing honor to the memory of the greatest 
expounder of the Constitution of the United States, as it was 
handed down by the fathers. 

If a recent sickness does not prevent, I shall, with pleasure, 
he present to witness the completion of your noble and patriotic 
work. I have the honor to be, ladies. 

Yours, very truly, 

M. L. BONHAM. 



Department of Justice, 
Washington, D. C, April 9, 1887. 
//. E. Young, Esq., Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of the invitation 
to be present at the unveiling of the Calhoun Monument on the 
26th instant, and to say it would give me a great deal of pleasure 
if I could accept it. The occasion is one of great interest and 
1 am glad the Association has been so successful in carrying out 
its plans. The conditions of the public business, however, com- 
pel me to decline all invitations of this kind, so that I regret to 
say I cannot be present on this occasion. 

With kindest wishes for the Association and thanks for the 
courtesy shown me, 

I am, yours truly, 

A, H, EAKLE. 



Executive Mansion, ) 
WashincxTOn, April 19, 1887. j 
Henry E. Young, Chairman, <S'c. : 

My Dear Sir — I am sorry that I must decline the invitation, 
which I have received, to be present at the unveiling of the 
monument erected to the memory of John C. Calhoun, on the 
2()tli instant. 

The ladies of the Monument Association have good reason for 
pride and congratulation in the complete success of their efforts 
to fittingly commemorate the virtues and the services of their 
loved and honored son of South Carolina. 



127 

I believe it would be well if all he did, and even all he be- 
lieved and taught, and all his aspirations for the welfare and 
prosperity of our Eepublic, were better known aud understood. 
If this were so, much would be found to enlighten and encourage 
those charged with public duty, and much to stimulate patriotic 
enthusiasm. 

The ceremonies attending the unveiling of the monument 
erected by his ardent admirers in the State which bears the im- 
press of his renown, should furnish an occasion for such an in- 
structive illustration of his character as shall inspire in the 
minds of all his countrymen, genuine respect and admiration 
for his courage and self-abnegation, toleration when ajiproval of 
his opinions is withheld, and universal pride in the greatness of 
this illustrious American. 

Yours, very truly, 

GROVER CLEVELAND. 



Washington, D. C, April 11, 1887. 
H. E. Youny, Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — I am indebted for your courteous note of the 4th 
instant, and the invitation of the Ladies^ Calhoun Monument 
Association, with which I am honored, to be present in Charles- 
ton, on the 26th instant, at the unveiling of the monument of 
that great American statesman, John C. Calhoun. 

The duties that surround me will not allow me to absent my- 
self from Washington, and with sincere regret I am compelled 
to forego the pleasure of being present on that interesting 
occasion. 

The erection of the monument is an act of patriotic grati- 
tude, and cannot fail importantly to impress upon this and suc- 
cessive generations the power of art to portray and perpetuate 
virtuous humanity as exhibited in the moral and intellectual 
majesty of the great Carolinian. 

So long as the pure name and white fame of Mr. Calhoun 
shall be cherished in the hearts of our people, unscrupulous 
ambition and unworthy political methods will be rebuked, and 
the public conscience strengthened in admiration of that home- 



128 

bred integrity, simple Jiiul lucid wisdom ;ind lofty personal hon- 
our, of which he was so noble a type and exemplar. 

The regret for my absence is increased by the deprivation of 
listening to the orator happily selected for the impressive occa- 
sion — my friend and colleague, Mr. Lanuir — whose affinity to 
the subject of his oration guarantees its truthfulness and justice, 
and whose eloquence secures its embalmment in words worthy of 
Mr. Calhoun and himself. 

Your friend and fellow-citizen, 

T. F. BAYARD. 



Treasury Department, ) 
Washington, D. C, April 22, 1887. \ 
My Dear Sir — Enclosed you will find my formal acceptance 
of the invitation of the Calhoun Monument Association to at- 
tend the unveiling ceremonies on the 26th instant. I have de- 
layed my answer until now because it has been impossible for 
me to determine whether or not I could gratify my very strong 
desire to accept. I hope that my apology will be accepted by 
the ladies of the Association. 

Governor Thompson has duly notified your committee by tel- 
egraph of my intention to be present on the 26th. 
Y^ours respectfully, 

CHAELES S. FAIRCHILD. 
3fr. H. E. Young. 



Treasury Department, Washington. 

Mr. Charles S. Fairchild accepts with pleasure the polite invi- 
tation of the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association to be pres- 
ent at the unveiling ceremonies of their monument to Calhoun 
on Apil 26th, 1887. 

AVashington, D. C, April 22, 1887. 



War Department, Office of the Secretary. [ 
Washington, April 7, 1887. ) 
My Dear Sir — I am in receipt of the invitation of the Ladies' 
Calhoun Monument Association of Charleston to attend the un- 



129 

veiling of the monument erected by them to the memory of Mr. 
Calhoun, which takes place in your city on the 26th instant. 

It would give me pleasure to be present upon such occasion, 
but my engagements are so pressing at the Capital that I find it 
will be impossible for me to attend, and I beg that you will con- 
vey to the Association my regrets at being unable to witness the 
ceremony of the dedication of the monument which will be as 
lasting as the name and fame of South Carolina's most distin- 
guished son. 

Very trulv, yours, 

WILLIA.\r C. EXDICOTT. 
Mr. Henry E. Youiuj, Chairman Auxiliary Committee, Charlea- 

ton, S. C. : 



Xavv Department, Office of the Secketary, ) 
Washington, April 9, 1887. \ 
Dear Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
the invitation to be present at the unveiling ceremonies of the 
Ladies" Calhoun Monument Association, at Charleston, S. C, 
on Tuesday, April 26th, 1887, and regret my engagements are 
such that I shall not be able to accept. 

Very truly, yours, 

W. C. WHITXEY. 
Mr. Henry E. Young, Chairman, &c. 



Treasury Department, / 
Washington, April 23, 1887. ] 
Mrs. George Rohertson, President : 

Dear Madame — I regret that important public duties which 
will detain me here will prevent my acceptance of the invita- 
tion to be present on the 26th instant, at the unveiling of the 
statue of John C. Calhoun. K it were possible for me to attend 
it would give me sincere pleasure to witness the ceremonies 
which will make the consummation of the great work which 
will stand for all time to commemorate the virtues of the patriot 



130 

and statesman, as well as tlie zeal and devotion of the noble 
women to whom South Carolina is indebted for this memorial of 
her most illustrious son. 

T have the honor to be, dear Madame, 

A^ery respectfully, your obedient servant, 

HUGH S. THOMPSON. 



State of South Carolina, ) 
Executive Chamber, Columbia, April 6, 1887. \ 
Hon. Henry E. Young, Chair man Auxiliary Committee, Charles- 
ton, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
yours of the 4th, enclosing the request of " The Ladies' Cal- 
houn Monument Association '' that I should be present at the 
unveiling ceremonies of their monument to Calhoun, on April 
26th, 1887. 

It will give me great pleasure to attend on an occasion of such 
interest and importance both to the State and City of Charles- 
ton, and to aid in doing honor to Carolina's greatest statesman. 
Yours, very respectfully, 

J. P. RICHARDSON. 



United States Courts for South Carolina, ) 
Charleston, S. C, April 21, 1887. j 
H. E. Young, Esq., Chairman Calhoun Monument Association : 
My Dear Sir — It will give me much pleasure in accepting 
the invitation, with which you have honored me, to attend the 
ceremony of unveiling the statue of Mr. Calhoun on the 2Gtli 
instant. 

Yours, very truly, 

CHARLES H. SIMONTON. 



Columbia, April 7, 1887. 
Col. H. E. Young, Charleston : 
My Dear Col. — Please accept my sincere thanks for tiie in 



131 

vitatioiis just received. I will take great pleasure in handing 
one each to my brothers of the Bench. 

I cannot say now whether we will adjourn and attend or not. 
1 shall favor it. 

I think Mr. Calhoun was the greatest inspired man that ever 
lived, and we Carolinians should never forget him. 
\"ery respectfully, 

W. D. SIMPSON. 



Executive Depart3ient, ) 

Office of Secretary of State, [■ 
Columbia, S. C, April 11, 1887. ) 
To Hon. H. E. Young, Chairman Auxiliary Committee, 
Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — 1 have the honor to acknowledge your invitation 
to be present at the unveiling ceremonies of the Calhoun Mon- 
ument on the 26th instant, for which please accept my thanks. 
To witness an event of so much interest — one which not only 
does honor to the memory of Carolina's great statesman, but is 
alike honorable to our people — would give me much pleasure, 
but I fear that I will not be able to be present. 

Trusting that you may have a glorious time and that the mon- 
ument may for all time to come stimulate the boys and young 
men of South Carolina to emulate the virtues of the great 
statesman. 

I have the honor to be. 

Very respectfully, 

W. Z. LEITNER. 



Executive Department, ) 

Office of Comptroller-Gexeral. r 

Columbia, S. C, April 11, 1887. \ 

Col. Henry E. Young, Chairman Gentlemen Auxiliary Com- 
mittee, Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of an in- 
vitation to be present at the unveiling of the monument erected 
by the ladies of Carolina to the memory of John C. Calhoun. 



132 

If nothing unforseen prevents, I shall certainly attend, for hav- 
ing, as a cadet, participated in the ceremonies of laying the cor- 
ner-stone of this great work, nearly thirty years ago, it will give 
me peculiar pleasure to witness its completion. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

W. E. STONEY, 
Comptrolley'- General. 



Executive Depaktment, \ 

Office of the Adjutant and Inspector General, \ 
Columbia, S. C, April 8, 1887. ) 
Hon. Henry E. Young, Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — You letter of 4th April, containing an invitation 
to me officially, and through me to the military of the State to be 
present at the unveiling of the Calhoun Monument, was forward- 
ed to me from Columbia. I will take immediate steps to make 
the invitation known to the military. And have already direct- 
ed that those organizations which contemplate going, shall send 
to you and Gen. Huguenin, at the earliest moment, notice of 
their intention. 

Please express to the Association my appreciation of their 
courtesy to me ofticially, and through me to the military of the 
State. Very respectfully, 

M. L. BOXHAM, Jr., 

A. <& I. G. 



Orangeburg, S. C, April 14, 1887. 
Col. Henry E. Young, Chairman Gentlemen Anxiliary Com- 
mittee Calhoun Monument Association : 

My Dear Sir — The invitation to attend the unveiling of the 
Calhoun Monument reached my home during my absence from 
the State. On my return, permit me to express the pleasure I 
feel in accepting it. 

In these days of modern politics, it is as salutary, as it is re- 
freshing, to return to the careful study of those great princi- 
ples upon which our Federal Government rests, as a foundation. 



133 

and to Join in honor to the great South Carolinian^ who was the 
faithful expounder and stalwart defender of the constitution, as 
it was framed by the Fathers. 

I remain, dear sir, 
Very truly yours, 

SAMUEL DIBBLE. 



South Carolina Military Academy, ) 
Office of Superintendent at the Citadel, [• 
Charleston, S. C, April 6, 1887. ) 
3£r. H. E. Yomig, Chairman, Charleston. S. C: 

Dear Sir — Your esteemed favor of the 14 inst., conveying to 
the officers and cadets of the South Carolina Military Academy, 
the invitation of the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association to 
attend the unveiling ceremonies of their monument to Calhoun, 
on Tuesday, the 26th inst., at 10 o'clock A. M., has been re- 
ceived. 

On behalf of the officers and cadets of the Academy, I accept 
the invitation, and beg you to convey to the ladies of the associ- 
ation our high appreciation of their kindness. 
Eespectfully, 

GEOEOE D. JOHNSTON, 
Superintendent. 



The State of New Hampshire, ) 
Executive Department, 

Concord, April 7, 188T. ) 
Henry E. Young, Esq.: 

My Dear Sir — I regret that circumstances will prevent me 
from being present at the ceremonies of the unveiling of the 
monument to Calhoun on the 26th instant, to which the ladies 
of Charleston have so kindly invited me. 

The name and fame of John C. Calhoun will live longer than 
any monument erected to his memory by human hands. 
Many thanks for the courtesy of the invitation. 
Very trulv vours, 

MOODY CUREIEE. 

18 



134 

State of New York, ^ 

EXKCUTIA'E ChAM1?EK, [■ 

Ai.i^AKY, April ;, 1887. ) 
DKAiiSiK — ^1 am dosiiod by Governor Hill to acknowledge 
and thank you for the cordial invitation extended on behalf of 
the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association of Charleston, re- 
questing his preseni'c at the unveiling of the Calhoun Monu- 
ment on April 2Gth. 

Much as it would allord ti>e tiovernor pleasure to accept the 
courteous invitation thus extended, he regrets that his other en- 
gagements are such that it will be impossible for him to do so. 
I am, verv respectfully vours, 

"WILLIAM C. KICE, 
Private Secretary. 
Henri/ E. Younff. AVsvy., C/iairinaii, d-c. Clnvrlestoti, S. C. 



State oe Nebraska, ) 

Exec uti y e D e va kym e js t , V 
Lincoln, April 8th, 1887. ) 
J//-. H. E. Yoioii/^ Chdirnian Committee Ladies' Calhoun Mon- 
nment : 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your kind in- 
vitation to attend the unveiling ceremonies of the Calhoun 
Monument. In reply I regret to say that official duties here 
will prevent my acceptance of the same, and the great distance 
between Nebraska and Charleston will probably prevent the at- 
tendance of a representative from this State. Thanking yon 
for your invitation, I remain, 

A^erv trulv vours, 

JOHN M. THAYER, 
Governor. 



Commonwealth oe Virginia, ) 
Covernok's Office, |- 

KiciiMONi), Va., April 8, 1887. ) 
Col. H. E.YoHiui. Charleston, S. C: 

My Dear Sir— I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
of an invitation to be present at the unveiling ceremonies of the 
monument to Mr. Calhoun on the 2Cth inst. 



135 

Please be kind etiougli to teruler to the (.adie.s' Aissociation my 

thanks for the invitation, and say that J greatly regret that the 

pressure of my official duties here will prevent my attendance. 

If it were possihle I should like to testify my respect to the 

memory of so distinguished a patriot and eminent statesman. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

FITZHUGH LEE. 



State of Kansas, i 
Executive Department. ,- 
ToPEKA, April 8, 1887. ) 
Hon. II. E. Young, Chairnian : 

My Dear Sir — I acknowledge the receipt of your kind lettei- 
of the 4th inst., inviting me to be present at the unveiling of 
the Calhoun Monument, at Charleston. 

Please accept, and convey to the Committee you represent, 
assurances of my profound appreciation of the great honor done 
me by this invitation, and of my regrets that I am unable, be- 
cause of a previous engagement for tlif (inff! named, to be 
present. I am, sir, with great respect. 

Your most obedient servant, 

JOJfX A. MARTIN. 



COM.MO.V WEALTH OF MA.SSACJf L'SETT.S, i 

ExECLTivE Department, r 

Boston, April 8, 188?. ) 
Henry E. Young, Eaq., Charleston, S. C: 

Dear Sir — I have your favor of the 4th instant, enclosing a 
formal invitation to be present in your city on April 2Gth at the 
unveiling of the Calhoun Monument, which has been erected 
by the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association. 

Permit me to say in reply, that I should be much pleased if I 
could visit Charleston at the time and for the purpose named, 
but the Legislature of this Commonwealth will still be in ses- 
sion, and attendance upon that, together with my other official 
duties, will prevent my doing so. Nor shall I find it convenient 
to be formally represented. 



136 



Thanking you for the courtesy extended to me, and hoping 
that the event may be highly enjoyable and wholly successful, 
I am, yours, very respectfully, 

OLIVER AMES. 



Executive Department, State of Louisiana, ) 
Baton Eouge, April 9, 1887. f 
Henry E. Young, Esq., Chairman Aiixiliary Committee Ladies' 

Calhoun Monument Association, Chat'leston, S. C: 

Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of April 2nd, enclosing an invitation to attend the unveil- 
ing ceremonies of the Calhoun Monument at Charleston on the 
26th inst. I regret that my engagements are such as to prevent 
my acceptance. It would have given me great pleasure to join 
the citizens of South Carolina in paying tribute to the memory 
of that patriot statesman whose name is indissolubly blended 
with the political history of your State and of the whole Repub- 
lic — one whose pure character, blameless life, lofty aims, pro- 
found learning and transcendent mental prowess will command 
the admiration of the noble, the just and the wise, always and 
in all lands. 

At the request of the association, as communicated by you, 
to send some representative, I have this day requested General 
Gr. T. Beauregard to attend the ceremonies on behalf of Louis- 
iana, as I know no one more worthy to represent the State of his 
adoption nor one who will be more cordially welcomed in his 
native State.* 

Be pleased to present to the association assurance of my high 
esteem. Respectfully yours, 

S. D. McENERY, 
Governor of Louisiana.- 



State of Rhode Island, Executive Department, ) 
Providence, April 11, 1887. ] 
Hervry E. Young, Esq., Chairman Auxiliary Committee, 
Charleston, South Carolina : 

Dear Sir — I regret extremely that it is quite out of my pow- 
er to accept the kind invitation of the Ladies' Calhoun Monu- 

♦Gen. G. T. Beauregard is a native of Louis ana. 



187 

ment Association to be present at the unveiling ceremonies of 
their monument to Calhoun, to take place at Charleston, South 
Carolina, on Tuesday, April 36th, 1887. Believe me. 
Very respectfully yours, 

GEOECE P. WHETMORE, 
Governor. 



State of Florida, 
Executive Office, 
April n, 1887. 

Maj. H. E. Young, Charleston, S. 0. : 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your esteemed 
favor of the 4th instant, inclosing an invitation to be present at 
the unveiling of the Calhoun Monument. Permit me to express 
to you and through you to the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Associ- 
ation my grateful appreciation of the hope so courteously ex- 
pressed by you that I should be able. I regret that I will not be 
able because our Legislature being in session I shall be kept in 
the State at the time of the interesting ceremonies. 

I am well pleased, however, to avail myself of the kind permis- 
sion granted for me to designate a representative to attend in 
my stead, and have sent the card of invitation to Capt. Frank P. 
Fleming, of Jacksonville, who I trust will be able to attend. 
Very trulv yours, 

ED. A. PERRY. 



Jacksonville, Fla., April 21, 1887. 
Maj. U. E. Young, Chief Marshal, &c. , Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — Governor E. A. Perry, of our State, being pre- 
vented from accepting in person the invitation of the Ladies' 
Calhoun Monument Association, to attend the unveiling of the 
Calhoun Monument, owing to the fact that the Legislature is in 
session, and authorized by your note, has requested me to rep- 
resent him on that occasion. 

From the Governor's note of request to me, I fear that he 
mistook the signature to your note accompanying the invitation, 
and that his letter of acknowledgment and notificaton of my 
appointment has gone to a wrong address. 



138 

This is my excuse for writing you to say that I hope to be 
present on the occasion as Governor Perry's representative, 
arriving in your city not hxter than Monday night. 
Very respectfully yours, 

" ' F. P. FLEMING. 



Commonwealth of Kentucky, ) 
Executive Department, [• 

Frankfort, April 11, 1887. ) 
Dear Sir — I would be glad to avail myself of the opportu- 
nity to testify my high appreciation of the character and public 
services of John C. Calhoun — the grandest and purest of all the 
long list of illustrious statesmen — by my presence at the unveil- 
ing of the monument erected to his memory, but regret that 
official engagements place it out of my power to do so. 
With sincere thanks for your courteous invitation, 
I am, very respectfully, 

J. PKOCTOE KNOTT. 



State of North Carolina, ) 

Executive Department, [■ 
Raleigh, April 13, 1887. ) 
Henry E. Young, Chairman. £c. : 

Dear Sir — Governor Scales instructs me to thank you for an 
invitation to attend the unveiling ceremonies of the Calhoun 
Monument, April 36th instant, at Charleston, and to say that 
he deeply regrets his inability to attend. 

Very respectfully, 

CHARLES H. ARMFIELD, 
Private Secretary. 



State of Oregon, 1 

Executive Department, v 
Salem, April 13, 1887. ) 
H. E. Young, Esq., CharUston, S. 0. : 

My Dear Sir — I beg leave to express my regrets at not being 
able to comply with your kind invitation to be present at the 



139 

unveiling of tlie Calhoun Monument in your city on the 26th 
instant. 

The purity of his personal character, his stainless reputation 
maintained throughout a long public career, his acknowledged 
ability and unselfish patriotism, and the undoubted honesty and 
remarkable earnestness of his political convictions, stamped John 
C. Calhoun as one of the foremost men of his age and of this 
country, and deserve, as they now are securing, from his native 
State, the slight testimonial it now proposes to make to the 
memory of its most distinguished son. 

Very respectfully, 

SYLVESTER PENNOYEK. 



Chief Executive Office, } 

Montgomery, Alabama, April 12, 1887. f 
H. E, Young, Esq., Charleston, S. 0. : 

Dear Sir — The Governor instructs me to own receipt of and 
thank you for your favor of the 14th instant, together with in- 
vitation to be present at the unveiling of the Calhoun ]\!onu- 
ment. I'he Governor mucii regrets that other engagements 
will compel him to forego the very great pleasure of being 
present. Yours, very truly, 

J. K. JACKSON, 
Private Secretary. 



Executive Department of Arizona, \ 
Office of the Governor, >• 

Prescott, Arizona, April 13, 1887. ) 
SiK — Be kind enough to convey to the "Ladies' Calhoun 
Monument Association'" my thanks for their invitation to be 
present at the unveiling ceremonies of the monument, Tuesday, 
April 26th, 1887. I sincerely regret, owing to public duties 
here, my inability to be present. 

South Carolina honors herself in erecting a monument in 
commemoration of the life services of one of her most distin- 
guished sons. John Caldwell Calhoun's name is inseparably 
connected with the history, not only of South Carolina, but of 



140 

the Uuited States. As a Member of Congress, Secretary of War, 
Vice-President and United States Senator his record was " the 
indisputable basis of all high character, unspotted integrity aiul 
honor unimpeachable. '' 

Mr. Webster only rendered justice in his estimate of his char- 
acter when, announcing his death, in the United States Senate, 
he said, "firm in his purposes, patriotic and honest, as I am 
sure he was, in the principles he espoused and in the measures 
he defended, I do not believe that, aside from his large regard 
for that species of distinction that conducted him to eminent 
stations for the benefit of the Republic, he had a selfish motive 
or a selfish feeling." 

What higher eneonium could be passeil on any statesman 'i 
I am, sir, very respectfully, yours, 

C. MEYEK ZULIOK. 
Hon. Henry E. Young, Chairman , Sc, Charleston, S. C. 



State of Connectiout, ) 

Executive Department, [■ 
Hartford, April 13, 1887. ) 
^Ly Dear Sir — Governor Lounsbury directs me to express to 
you and the Association his sincere thanks for the kind invita- 
tion to be present at the unveiling ceremony of the Calhoun 
Monument, and that he regrets very much the existence of other 
engagements which will prevent the pleasure of an acceptance. 
Sincerely, yours, 

GEOEGE p. ]\[cLEAN, 
Private Secretary. 
'To H. E. Young. 



State of New Jersey, ) 

Executive Department, \ 

Trenton, April, 13, 1887. ) 
Hon. H.E. Young, (fhairnian : 

Dear Sir — I very much regret that my public duties will pre- 
vent my being present at the unveiling ceremonies of the monu- 
ment to the memorv of John C. Calhoun, at Charleston, on 



in 

Tuesday, April 26tl), 1887, and in accoidunce witli your sugges- 
tion, I liave requested Wiilium .1. DeTreville, Esq., of Orange- 
burg, S. C, to represent me on that occasion. 
] am, very truly yours, 

EGBERT. 8. (J KEEN. 



Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. ) 
Executive Chamber, I 

Harrisburg, April 14, 1887. ) 
ff. E. Young, Chairman Gentlemen's Auxiliary Committee 
of the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association, Charleston, 
South Carolina : 

My Dear Sir — Your letter of the 4th instant, inclosing the 
formal invitation to be present at the unveiling of the Calhoun 
Monument, erected by the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Associa- 
tion at Marion Square, Charleston, 8. (!., on the 2Gth April, 
has been received. I am honored by the invitation, and would be 
greatly pleased to attend the interesting ceremonies connected 
with the occasion, did public duties permit. I am, however, so 
constantly engaged during the session of the Legislature that it 
will be impossible for me to be absent at the time referred to. 

Please convey to your committee, and accept for yourself, my 
grateful thanks for the lionor conferred by the invitation, and 
believe me, Very cordially yours, 

JAMES A. BEAVER. 



Executive Office, ) 
Michigan, l 

Lansing, April 15, 1887. ) 
H. E. Young, Chairman Gentlemen's Auxiliary Committee, 
Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — Your communication of April 4th, conveying to 
me an invitation to be present at the unveiling of the Calhoun 
Monument in your city on the 2Cth day of April, at hand. 
Permit me in reply to say that the honor you would confer will 
necessarily call for my regrets instead of my presence upon that 
occasion. My time is so occupied with official business here that 

19 



142 

it will be impossible for me to spare the time necessary to make a 
visit to your State. 

Believing that my excuse will be received in the good faith in 
which it is offered, I am, 

Eespectfully yours, 

C. G. LUCE, 
Governor. 



State of Indiana, ") 

Executive Department, Governor's Office, >- 
Indianapolis, April 19, 1887. ) 
ffoji. Henri/ E. Young, Chairman of the Azixiliary Committee 

the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association, Charleston, S. C: 

My Dear Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
of yours enclosing an invitation from the Ladies' Calhoun Mon- 
ument Association to be present at the unveiling of the monu- 
ment in the City of Charleston, April 26th, 1.S87. 

I regret that official engagements prevent me from being pres- 
ent. The ladies composing the Calhoun Monument Association, 
as well as the entire people of South Carolina, honor themselves 
and their State in erecting a monument in commemoration of 
one of her most gifted sons. One who filled a position in nearly 
every department of the Federal Government, having risen from 
an humble position in life to the second office within the gift of 
his countrymen, fully exemplifies the possibilities of American 
citizenship. 

He discharged the duties of every public station to which he 
was called with strict fidelity, and gave to their discharge a most 
laborious attention and profound thought, and however much 
other statesmen of his time differed witli him on questions of 
public policy, none ever doubted his sincerity and patriotic de- 
sire as he saw and understood the situation. 

His mind was a wonderful storehouse of learning and infor- 
mation. His advocacy of public measures was always charac- 
terized by strong, concise, aggressive reasoning, and imj)ressed 
with an eloquence, though generally un impassioned and without 
attempt at ornament, yet earnest, persuasive and clothed with 
great dignity of manner. 



143 

He was on the stage of political action in the period of our 
country^s history that, perhaps, produced our greatest states- 
men ; was contemporaneous with Webster, Clay, Benton and 
others, and in ability was their peer, and with them, has left his 
name on the imperishable records of our country's history. As 
a statesman, he may have made mistakes, but let those only who 
have made none dare to point them out. 

He lived a life of unspotted integrity, and left behind him a 
public and a private character of unimpeachable honor. 

When the mothers and daughters of South Carolina shall un- 
veil the structure, the work of their creation, reared to the 
memory of South Carolina's most illustrious son, it can be truly 
said by all who may behold it, that in the death of him whose 
name it commemorates, a great man fell. 

It is my earnest wish that the admirable arrangements for the 
unveiling ceremonies may have a successful termination, and the 
beautiful monument may ever remain the pride of the people of 
your State and bear enduring testimony to the faithful labors of 
the ladies of South Carolina to perpetuate the memory of him, 
who, in his lifetime, was her most distinguished citizen. 
With great respect, truly yours, 

ISAAC P. GRAY. 



State of Mississippi, ) 
Executive Depaktmext, r 
Jacksox, Miss., April 19, 1887. ) 
Hon. Henry E. Young, Chairman, (£c., Charleston, S. C.,: 

Dear Sir — 1 beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor, 
enclosing an invitation to be present at the unveiling ceremo- 
nies of the Calhoun Monument on the 26th instant. It would 
give me more pleasure than I can express to join in paying 
honor to the memory of the distinguished statesman whose 
name fills so large a space in American history. Official engage- 
ments, however, will prevent my acceptance. In compliance 
with your communication to have a representative upon the oc- 
casion, I have requested Hon. Charles E. Hooker, member elect 
of Congress to be present on behalf of Mississippi, and have 



144 

assured him of n warm and cordial welnome at tlie liands of tlie 
patriotic people of his native State. 

Thanking the Association for the honor paid me, 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

l^OBEirU LOWRY. 



New OitLEANS, April 10th, 1887. 
Dear Madam: 

I am much obliged to the ladies of your Association for their 
kiud invitation to the unveiling, on the 26th inst., of the monu- 
ment to South Carolina's great orator, statesman and patriot, 
John C. Calhoun. 

I regret very much that my engagements here at that time, 
and the dangerous illness of a member of my family, will de- 
prive me of the pleasure and honor of participating in the 
ceremonies. 

I remain, yours very truly, 

G. T. BEAUREGAED. 
Mrs, Joseph Blackman, Corresponding Secretary Ladies' Calhoun 
Monument Association, Charleston, 8. G. 



City of Charleston, i 

Executive Department, \ 

April 16, 3 887. ) 

To tlie Officers and Directresses of tlie Ladies' Calhoun Monu- 
ment Association : 

Ladies — I would respectfully inform you that your invita- 
tion to the City Council to be present at the unveiling ceremo- 
nies of the Calhoun Monument, Marion Square, on Tuesday, 
April 36tli, was presented to the City Council on the 12th in- 
stant, and was unanimously accepted. 

With great respect, 

W. W. SIMONS, 

Clerk of Council. 



145 

Office Clerk ani-» Treasurer, ) 
City of Wilmington, N. C, 

April 19, 1887. ) 
H. E. Young, Esq., Chairman, &c.: 

Dear Sir — At a meeting of the Board of Aldermen held on 
the IHth instant, the Mayor presented an invitation of the 
Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association to attend the unveiling 
of the monument on the 36th instant, the following action was 
had: 

Resolved. That this Board gratefully acknowledge the invitation referred 
to, and accept it as renewed evidence of the kindly feelings of sympathy 
which have so long existed between the people of Charleston and Wilmington. 

Resfjlved, That this Board, and the people of Wilmington, cordially sym- 
pathize with and applaud the patriotic and noble spirit or the ladies of the 
Calhoun Monument Association which has inspired them in their sacred 
work. 

Resolved, That a copy of these Resolutions be forwarded by the Clerk and 
Treasurer to the officers of the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association. 

Very respectfully, 

WILLIAM A. WILSOJ^', 

C'lerJc and Treasurer. 



Mayor's Office, 1 

Fredericksburg, Va., y 
April 20, 1887. ) 
H. E. Young, Esq., Chairman Ladies' Calhoun Monument 
Association, Charleston, S. C. : 

Dear Sir — I beg to acknowledge your kindly letter of the 
7th inst,, enclosing invitation from the Ladies' Calhoun Monu- 
ment Association to the ceremonies of the unveiling of the mon- 
ument to Mr. Calhoun on the 2Gth inst., and herewith enclose 
a copy of the resolutions responding to the invitation. 

Be assured that the memory of Mr, Calhoun, the great states- 
man and pure patriot is yet fragrant among us, as of all true 
Virginians, and will ever be held in highest honor by us. We 
cordially congratulate the ladies on the completion of the fitting 
honor to the great and good man. 

Very respectfully, 

J. HAZARD, 
Mayor. 



146 

Office Clerk of Council, ) 
Petersburg, Va., April 30, 1887. f 
Hon. T. J. Janatt, Mayor of Petersburg, Va. : 

Dear Sir — At a meeting of tlie Common Council of the City 
of Petersburg, held April 19th, 1887, the following resolutions 
were adopted : 

Whereas, the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Association ot South Carolina 
have extended to the Mayor and Common Council of the city of Petersbui'g, 
an invitation to be present in the City of Charleston on the 26th day of April, 
1887, at the unveiling ceremonies of their monument to John C. Calhoun, 
South Carolina's distinguished son ; therefore 

1. Be, ii resolved, By the Common Council tliat this body regrets its inabil- 
ity to accept the invitation so extended, to take part with others in honoi-ing 
the memory of that eminent and jiure American i)atriot. 

2. That the Hon. F. J. Janatt, the Mayor of this city, be requested to 
fiii'nish a copy of these resolutions to the Secretary of said association. 

Yours respectfully, 

P. R. KUSSELL, 
Glerk Council. 



Office of Mayor, ) 

Petersburg, Va., April 22, 1887. ) 
H. E. Young, Esq., Chairman, (&c., Ladies' Calhoun Monument 

Association : 

Dear Sir — At a meeting of our Common Council held on 
the 19th inst., the enclosed resolutions were unanimously adopted, 
and the Mayor of the city requested to furnish a copy of them 
through you to the ladies of the Calhoun Monument Associa- 
tion. 

In accordance with the request of the Council I enclose, with 
much pleasure, the resolutions as passed, with the regret that I 
cannot be present on account of sickness which has confined me 
to my room and bed since the middle of last January. It would 
afford me so much pleasure to visit Charleston then, and see 
whether I could meet any of the good and great men of South 
Carolina, whose acquaintance I made at Janatt's Hotel, while 
proprietor, from the 1st of January, 1858, until January, 1862. 
I knew Mr. Calhoun, Butler, Keitt, Rhett, McQueen and others. 
I became acquainted with them by seeing them on their way to 



]47 

the sjrginia .^priugn in the. auTnifihr, ijy on tjj«;ir way to \S'aHhiijg- 
ton to attend the meeting oi" Congress. I very often sigh and 
wish we }ja<3 a Calhoun and a Clay and others of those days 
now, hut those good men and times have j>assed away, and f too 
shall soon he gone, being in my seventieth year. 

Hoping that the ladies (God bless them), and the gentlemen 
interested with them, may enjoy avery pleasure and realize their 
fullest expectations on th.at occasion, I remain, 
Yours very truly, 

T. J. JANATT, 
Mayor PeterHhurg, Va. 



CouxciL Chambeb, ) 

KicHMOXi>, Va., April 21, 1887. f 
Jfr. Htinry E. Voany, OtMirnian Gentlemen' h Auxiliary fJom- 
miitee, &c. : 

Deak 8jk — Your letter oi ndosing an invitation 

from the Ladies' Calhoun Monument Aggociation to the Board 
of Aldermen of this city >t the ceremo- 

nies attending upon the ,. jI to Mr, Cal- 

houn has been received. I am instructed to return the gincere 
thanks of the Boaro ' ' on and convey 

their regrets at not . 

Very respectfully, 

BE-\. J. -liJGrjBT, 
C'Zer^ Board of A Idermen. 



/ 






It ii> 



Deaclditied using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide 



PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES, LP. 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranbefty Township, PA 16066 



